Mothers' Reactions
by raspberry dreams
Summary: Troy and Gabriella's relationship told from their mothers' perspective and how their parents felt about it.
1. Chapter 1

A Mother's Reaction

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters or their mothers.

Chapter 1

Lucille gave a frustrated sigh as she went looking for her wayward husband. She knew where he'd be and entered the gym fully prepared to tell them both off. The smile on both their faces as Troy beat his father and scored calmed her slightly so she scolded them lightly instead. **"Boys? Did we really fly all this way to play more basketball? It's the last night of vacation. The party, remember?"**

Jack looked at her guiltily but Troy looked indifferent.

" **Troy, they have a kid's party downstairs in the Freestyle club"** she told him, subtly hinting that she didn't want him hanging around with them that evening or holed up alone in the gym or their hotel room.

" **Kid's party?"** Troy asked looking disgusted.

" **Young adults. Now go, shower up** " Lucille ordered. She looked at her son, blonde hair blue eyes, fit toned body, not overly short, intelligent, well-mannered and the captain of the most successful basketball team East High had seen in years. She may be biased but surely he was every girl's dream. What few people realised was how shy her son could be. She knew her husband was glad that Troy showed no interest in girls and dating or anything else to distract him from basketball but Lucille was worried about her son.

Jack had had difficulty coming to terms with no longer being able to play competitively when he blew out his knee in his senior year of college but at least he'd had other ambitions and interests to fall back on as well as her support. Troy's whole life centred around basketball, and all his friends were team mates.

They'd had a good holiday but as much as Lucille had enjoyed her son's company she knew it wasn't normal for a sixteen-year-old boy to want to spend the entire week hanging out with his parents. Troy had enjoyed the skiing and snowboarding but he was so competitive that skiing really wasn't a social activity for him. He concentrated on the black runs where there were relatively few skiers his age and hadn't made an attempt to get to know his fellow skiers beyond a polite hello when he shared a ride on the lift up the mountain.

She hoped he'd actually stay a while at the New Year's Eve party and meet some people although it was a real pity that they were leaving in the morning anyway.

-o0o-

Maria was amused when Gabriella came up starry eyed just after midnight to wish her a happy new year.

"You obviously had fun. Are you glad I talked you into going to the party?"

"No, well yes but it was every bit as awful as I told you it would be. They had karaoke, and were dragging random strangers up to sing duets, I thought I was going to die of embarrassment" Gabriella complained.

"Well you obviously didn't, did you make any friends?" Maria asked.

"One, his name is Troy, he got pulled up to sing with me" Gabriella replied. "He didn't like the party much either so we got some hot chocolate and went outside to talk."

"Troy?" Maria questioned as they walked back to their room. "Is he cute?"

"Mom!" Gabriella protested.

"Well?"

"Yeah I guess he is" she said showing her mother the picture on her phone. "He was really nice. He said he's going to call me."

"Where does he live?" Maria asked.

"He didn't say" Gabriella said. "I'll ask when I see him tomorrow."

Maria smiled delightedly, this was the first time since she'd announced they were moving a month ago that she'd seen her daughter happy. This ski trip was a treat while the professional movers packed up all their things and unpacked for them in their new home but while Gabriella had enjoyed the skiing she hadn't made any effort to get to know anyone, spending most of her free time reading.

Maria felt guilty transferring her daughter across the country again in the middle of the school year even though Gabriella had reassured her that she didn't particularly like her school in Chicago and hadn't seemed to have made any close friends. This move was a huge promotion though and that meant they could afford a decent house instead of just an apartment and her company had promised not to transfer her again for eighteen months so her daughter could stay in the same school for the rest of her schooling.

-o0o-

Lucille watched used as Troy played awkwardly with his phone during the flight home next morning. He appeared to be writing and erasing the same text over and over.  
"What's the problem Troy?"  
"I met this girl last night and I said I'd call her. I forgot we were leaving first thing."  
"If you said you'd call then you need to contact her. It's not nice to leave her hanging. you should call her when we land" Lucille lectured.  
"Yeah but if I'm never gonna see her again what's the point?" Troy replied.  
"Thoughtfulness and good manners is the point" Lucille scolded. "What if she's hanging around waiting for your call?"  
"She could call me" Troy replied.  
"Trust me Troy, it doesn't work that way. At least send her a message" Lucille entreated.

-o0o-

Maria waited anxiously for Gabriella to call her when she arrived home after her first day of school. She'd been impressed by what she'd seen that morning but the true test of a school was to attend the classes and she was eager to hear Gabriella's impressions. Unfortunately she couldn't get off early enough to be home when Gabriella arrived.  
"Hi sweetheart how was your day?" She greeted her trying to be positive in the hope Gabriella would reciprocate.  
"I had a great day. Everyone seems nice. I'm not sure my math teacher really knows all that much but she'll be leaving to have her baby in a couple of weeks anyway from the look of it. There's lots of extracurricular activities and the food in the cafeteria is actually decent for once" Gabriella enthused.  
Maria laughed delightedly. "That's great" she agreed. "Did you find an extracurricular activity you're interested in?" She hoped Gabriella would choose to become involved in some non-academic activities as well as her usual things."  
"I thought I might try out for a minor role in the 'spring musicale' maybe" Gabriella said uncertainly.  
"You have a beautiful singing voice and you said you enjoyed singing karaoke on New Year's Eve" Maria encouraged.  
"Speaking of New Year's, you'll never guess who's in my homeroom" Gabriella exclaimed.  
"The boy you sang with?" Maria asked surprised. "No wonder you're thinking about auditioning for the Musicale."  
"No it's not like that. Troy isn't even going to try out though he said he come to watch me if I get in it. He's some big deal basketball player. There are posters up with his picture on them and everything" Gabriella said blushing so hard Maria could almost hear it over the phone.  
Maria chuckled. "So he's a jock" she suggested.  
"I guess so. He's team captain. His dad's the coach. Thank heavens I'm not doing PE. That could be awkward."  
"If Troy's as popular as you say he is you're probably not the only girl hoping to be something more than friends" Maria warned.  
"Oh I know. I met this girl Sharpay who definitely wants him. She all but warned me off him and the musicale. I don't think Troy was interested in her though, he appeared awkwardly embarrassed by her behaviour."

"What else can you tell me about this boy? What does he want to do with his life? Is he in any of your classes?"

"Mommm" Gabriella whined.

"Gabriella I want to know about this boy you're interested in" Maria said firmly. "I'm your mother and I care about what's going on in your life."

Gabriella sighed. "His Dad wants him to play professional basketball but Troy is more interested in going into real estate like his Mom. He's in my homeroom and my AP English class" she replied in a monotone.

"Thank you for indulging me" Maria said dryly. "Do you like him as a friend or would you like him to be something more?"

"Half the girls in the junior class would like to date Troy" Gabriella replied.

"That's not what I asked" Maria said. "If Troy asked you out would be hoping for a couple of friendly dates or do you have a crush on him?" Maria was fairly sure she knew the answer but wanted Gabriella to admit out loud what she was feeling.

"I really like him Mom, and I hope he likes me like that too" Gabriella confessed.

"Just promise me you'll get to know him before imagining the two of you in one of your romantic novels" Maria said.

Gabriella laughed as Maria had intended. "Okay Mom" she agreed.  
"Now I'm really glad you enjoyed your first day. I'm sorry, I've got to go sweetie. I've got a call coming in on the other line" Maria interrupted reluctantly. It was so great to hear Gabriella speak so enthusiastically about anything other than books.

-o0o-

Lucille arrived home late after Troy's first day of school (technically it was her husband's first day back as well but she was thinking about Troy). She rolled her eyes as she saw the two of them outside playing basketball. "Come on in out of the cold" she scolded. "Troy, go take a warm shower it's too cold to be out there sweating once the sun goes down."

"Hey Mama! You'll never guess what happened?" Troy said happily.

"I'll guess later, now go shower up" Lucille ordered firmly. "And you what were you thinking keeping him out there" she turned to her husband.

"I was thinking that the championship's in two weeks and there'll be scouts from most of the colleges in the Midwest there if we're lucky" Jack retorted.

"He's only a junior there's plenty of time next year to worry about scouts. And he won't be able to play at all if he comes down with pneumonia" Lucille ranted.

Troy came bounding back down the stairs. "I'm starving, what's for dinner?" he asked.

"Troy I've just walked through the door, peel me some potatoes and I'll see what else I can scrounge up" Lucille protested. "So tell me what happened today. Did you like your new classes?"

"They were okay?" Troy replied peeling as ordered. "The girl I met on New Year's Eve transferred to East High."

"That's quite a coincidence. I bet you're glad now that you rang her New Year's Day" Lucille said smiling.

"Yeah!" Troy agreed.

"Thanks Mom" Lucille prompted in a sing song voice.

Troy grinned. "Thanks Mom."

-o0o-

"I'm sorry it worked out like that with your father Troy. I wish I'd been there to meet Gabriella. Will you bring her by the house sometime soon?" Lucille said torn between jealousy that Jack got to meet the girl her son was crushing on and anger that he'd treated her so badly and upset Troy.

"I think you'll like her Mom, she's beautiful and really smart and she's got an amazing voice and she's nice to everybody" Lucille smiled amusedly as Troy rambled.

"I'm sure I will if you do. Are you planning on asking her out?" Lucille asked.

"Not before the championships. Dad would have a cow" Troy answered.

Lucille laughed ruefully. "But you want to ask her?"

Troy looked scared for a moment. "Yeah" he admitted.

"So are you enjoying actually rehearsing for the call backs or just the opportunity to spend time with Gabriella?" Lucille asked.

"Both" Troy replied blushing. "Gabriella's not always able to rehearse at the same time as me. Kelsi's really nice too, she's becoming a good friend."

"So would you like to ask Kelsi out?" Lucille asked.

"No even if Gabriella doesn't want me to go out with her I wouldn't ask Kelsi out. I don't like her like that" Troy replied. "She's a lot of fun to practice with though. I wouldn't mind spending more time hanging out."

"It's good to make new friends, broaden your horizons. See that there is a world out there beyond basketball" Lucille said teasingly.

"Not according to Dad this week there isn't" Troy retorted.

-o0o-

"How was your day?" Maria asked as they sat down to dinner.

"I met Troy's dad today?" Gabriella said.

"Did Troy introduce you?"

"Yeah but his Dad was really pissed at him for missing practice and all but kicked me out of the gym. I hope I didn't get him in too much trouble" Gabriella said uncertainly.

"I'm sure you didn't have much to do with it. It wasn't your fault Troy missed practice. I assume you mean basketball practice?"

"Yeah basketball. Sometimes it seems that the whole school revolves around the basketball championships" Gabriella complained.

Maria laughed. "It was football when I was at school" she agreed ruefully. "It will all settle down after the season. Did you like Troy's father?"

"No he was quite rude and he clearly didn't like me. Most of the others say he's a good teacher though" Gabriella replied.

-o0o-

"Troy was upset by the way you treated his new friend. You were unpardonably rude to someone he's beginning to care about" Lucille said as Jack walked in the door. "You should apologise."

"He missed practice. This is the second time this week and he's never missed before. She's a bad influence. One he can't afford two weeks before the championships" Jack said angrily.

"You can hardly blame Troy for Estelle Darbus's craziness" Lucille protested.

"And where was he today? He had paint on his hands for goodness sake and he wasn't in detention this time."

"So he missed one practice this afternoon. You had him out training at dawn this morning, he had practice scheduled in free period and at lunch which I assume he did since you're not complaining about them. So he missed one practice out of four and I'm sure if you hadn't angered him into storming out he probably would have stayed and practiced until you dragged him home to dinner" Lucille ranted.

"The Championships are next week. Not showing up to practice shows a lack of commitment. A lack of respect for his team that could harm their performance on the court" Jack replied.

"I don't care about bloody basketball!" Lucille exclaimed furiously.  
Jack glared at her angrily. In his mind that was almost blasphemy. "Forgive me for caring for our son's future" he spat. "He's got a real chance of a scholarship if he keeps playing at the level he was at before all this kerfuffle with this girl."  
"How can you say that of course I'm worried about his future" Lucille protested. "But I'm more worried about his well being now. He really likes this girl and he's been happy the last week. Why do you want to interfere?"  
"He'll get over it. He was fine until that girl arrived" Jack retorted.  
"I'm beginning to doubt that. Jack can't you see that it's dangerous for Troy to be so single mindlessly focused on basketball. What if he doesn't make it into a college team. He needs other interests and ambitions in his life. He's already nearly the shortest boy on the team. What if he doesn't grow much taller. What if he gets hurt and can't play anymore? I'll admit the timing could have been better but he needs other interests in his life."  
"The timing couldn't have been worse" Jack retorted. "All I'm asking is that he concentrate on winning the championship. He can ask her out afterwards."  
"But he can't prepare for the call backs after the championship. It's not his fault they're the same week" Lucille argued.  
"Singing a silly school musical isn't going to win him a scholarship. And there'll be another one next term if he's even still interested by then."  
"Silly school musical!" Lucille yelled. "You didn't say that about them back when we were in high school. Some of my best memories from high school are the times I spent rehearsing and performing in school musicals. I'm glad Troy is taking an interest in something we have in common for a change."  
"You know I didn't mean it like that. I loved you in those musicals. You had real talent but Troy's never shown any interest in them before. He doesn't even sing" Jack back-pedalled as fast as he could.

"He can sing. He has a beautiful singing voice and we both know he has the charisma to pull off a leading man role" Lucille said.

"Yeah but he can't act" Jack stated surely.

Lucille broke into peals of laughter. "Of course he can act" she said still chuckling. "Even I barely realise he's acting half the time."

"What are you talking about Luce?" Jack asked completely baffled.

"You're really that clueless?" Lucille snorted. "Troy hates being 'the basketball guy' for your friends. He despises Blair and Alexis and he thinks Tommy Bainbridge is a spoiled brat who deserves a good spanking and he spends half their time together itching to give it to him. And yet all of your friends have no idea of any of that. And apparently neither did you. I'd say our son is one hell of an actor when he needs to be." She thumped his dinner down in front of him before carrying a plate upstairs to Troy.

A/N: This story will be completed to the end of the first movie. Let me know if you want me to continue through the second and third movies.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters or their mothers.

Several days later Lucille exchanged concerned looks with Jack as Troy came in, denied being hungry, moped his way upstairs and threw himself on his bed. Troy was one of the rare children that was borderline hyperactive without an attention deficit or learning disability and it was incredibly rare for him to be still. Even when he was reading or watching television he'd be moving or fiddling with something. It was incredibly unusual to see him moving so listlessly. Whatever had happened must be upsetting him a great deal and the fact that Troy was upset and Chad wasn't there doing his best in his often misguided way to make things better was even more telling. The boy's had fought before of course but usually they made up as soon as they'd both calmed down.  
Lucille followed him upstairs and approached the bed and Troy ignored her as she sat down beside him. "What's wrong Troy? This isn't like you" she said brushing his hair out of his eyes.  
"I don't know. The guys ambushed me at practice at lunchtime. They don't trust me to be working hard enough to win the championship. They even insinuated that Dad was disappointed in me. Then after lunch Gabriella gave me back her copy of the call backs song and said she doesn't want to do it anymore. She wouldn't even talk to me about it" Troy said baffled.  
"We'll you know I'll never be disappointed in you for trying new things. And your father loves you and wants you to be happy. Of course he will be disappointed for a while if you don't win the championship game but just because he's disappointed in you and the rest of the team as a coach and his players doesn't ever mean he's disappointed in you as his son" Lucille said earnestly. "You're not the only player on the team Troy. It won't be entirely your fault if you don't win. You've had games before where you played brilliantly and the team still lost. There's twelve players on that team and none of them have been asked to give up all their other hobbies and interests. You told me that Zeke admitted that he loved baking the other day and you didn't tell him that baking was interfering with your chances of winning the championship did you? Did anyone else on the team tell him he had to stop baking?" she asked. "Your team had no right to ambush you like that."

"Yeah you're right. But why isn't Gabriella talking to me?" Troy asked his mother.

Lucille sighed, if he was more worried about that than the argument with Chad and his team he had serious feelings for the girl and that was the issue she could reassure him about the least. "Are you sure she didn't hear the discussion with your team? Does she know you've been stressed about the championship game? She might have thought backing off was in your best interests" Lucille suggested.

"So what should I do? How do I get Gabriella to change her mind?" Troy asked.

"Could she have heard you?" Lucille pressed.

"No we were in the locker room and she had a scholastic decathlon meeting and then was going to meet Kelsi to practice" Troy said.

"Then maybe withdrawing from the musical had something to do with something that happened while she was with Kelsi" Lucille suggested.

"Yeah but why does that mean she doesn't want to be my friend anymore? I wouldn't force her to do the musical if she didn't want to"

"You need to give her time to see that you want to be her friend. Don't harass her but let her know that you do still want to be friend" Lucille said gently. "Has Kelsi stopped speaking to you as well? Maybe you could ask her if she can tell you what happened. Now come down and have some dinner. Nothing will be solved by going hungry."

"I'm not hungry" Troy replied dispiritedly.

"Come down and eat anyway. It will make you feel better" Lucille ordered refusing to back down.

-o0o-

"Gabriella I'm home" Maria called as she walked in the door. She was initially pleased not to receive an answer hoping that Gabriella was out with one of the new friends she'd enthusiastically told her about over the last week. She checked the front of the fridge, and the answering machine for a message frowning that there wasn't a message from Gabriella telling her where she was or when she'd be home. She ran upstairs to change and heard muffled crying from Gabriella's room and entered without asking permission.  
Gabriella was sprawled face down on the bed sobbing into her pillow.  
"Mija what's wrong?" She said sitting beside her.  
"I hate East High! I wish we'd never come here" Gabriella cried.  
"What happened?" Maria asked even more concerned. Gabriella had consistently told her this was the best school she had ever been to and she was making so many friends. "What about your friends, Troy and Kelsi and Taylor? You've been happier here for the last few weeks that I've seen you in a long time.

"Troy said that I'm not important to him, that he's going to drop the call backs and forget about me" Gabriella cried.  
"He said that to your face?" Maria asked furiously. "Where does this boy live? I'm going to go over there and make him regret saying that!" She yelled.  
Normally Gabriella would have smiled at her mother's over enthusiastic defence and calmly talked her out of it. This time she was too upset to even consider whether her mother really meant it. (Maria did, with even the slightest encouragement from Gabriella or knowledge of where to find the boy she'd be over there without hesitation.) "No Mama it won't change anything with Troy. It'll only make things worse" Gabriella said embarrassed.  
"He needs to learn that he can't say such things about MY daughter. I could kill the boy. How could he look you in the eye and hurt you like that?! Who does he think he is?" Maria ranted.  
"He didn't say it to my face. He said it to his entire team" Gabriella said mortified.  
"And none of your friends told him off?" Maria demanded.  
"I don't have friends on the basketball team" Gabriella mumbled. "They were polite enough when Troy introduced me to some of them but none of them tried to get to know me."

"Did he know you were there when he said those things? Did he intend for you to hear him?" Maria asked. If the little jerk had done this deliberately she was going to march down that school and tear him limb from limb, in public if she had to. She was sure people would understand once she explained what the little jerk had done.  
"No he was in the boys' locker rooms. He knew I wouldn't be in hearing distance" Gabriella replied dispirited.

"What on earth were you doing in the boys' locker room? No don't tell me I really don't want to know" Maria exclaimed.  
Gabriella blushed. "It wasn't like that! I wasn't in the locker room Taylor showed me the recording of what he said."  
"How did Taylor have a recording to show you? Does she have secret cameras in the boys' locker rooms in the hope of recording them getting undressed? If so we need to report her, that's a serious breach of privacy" Maria asked incredulously.  
"No she's not that kind of girl and from the angle it was recorded on a laptop. I think someone in his team sent it to her" Gabriella said.  
"So someone just happened to record this boy making disparaging comments about you and your friendship and just happened to send it to Taylor while she had her computer on ready to show you?" Maria asked suspiciously.

"I knew it was a set up" Gabriella admitted. "But it doesn't matter. Troy still said those things."

"Do you think he was in on making that recording? That he knew it would be shown to you?" Maria asked.

Gabriella's eidetic memory allowed her to run through the scene between her and Troy at her locker after lunch and let her see his reactions to her words which she'd been too upset to notice at the time.  
"No he didn't appear to know anything about it. He was surprised when I told him I didn't want to do the call backs" Gabriella replied thoughtfully.

"So he was set up too" Maria said.

"I don't see how it matters whether he knew he was being recorded. They didn't hold a gun to his head to make him say those things about me" Gabriella yelled angrily.

"I'm not saying that you should forgive the boy. You're right he did say those awful things though I'm not sure why. But you need to look at the bigger picture too and carefully at everyone else's motives Gabriella. Why did Taylor set this up to show you? Does she know something about Troy that you don't know about the way he's treated girlfriends in the past and is trying to prevent you from being hurt or does she have some personal history with Troy or have something to gain by destroying your friendship with Troy? Could she have a crush on him herself?"

"No she denigrates him all the time" Gabriella replied.

"That could merely be a case of sour grapes" Maria commented.

Gabriella frowned thoughtfully. "If it's sour grapes then she'd be attracted to his best friend Chad Danforth. I think she genuinely dislikes him."

"So what else could she think she'll gain by you not remaining friends with Troy?" Maria asked.

"I wouldn't do the call backs and I'd have more time to spend with her" Gabriella said thoughtfully. "She's been trying to talk me into doing the scholastic decathlon since somebody put articles about my previous achievements in her locker."

"Do you know who put them there? Or even if anyone truly put them there? She could have just looked you up herself" Maria suggested.

"If she did then she's an incredible actress. She seemed really surprised that I hadn't put them there myself to apply for the decathlon team" Gabriella said.

"So she may have thought by ending your friendship with Troy you wouldn't do the call backs and therefore would be easier to talk into agreeing to do the scholastic decathlon" Maria said slowly.

"She's right, I agreed to do the decathlon. It will be a good opportunity to meet some people other than Troy and his friends" Gabriella replied flatly.

"Are you sure you want to do scholastic decathlon again? You said you didn't want to be known as a genius again" Maria asked.  
"I wasn't going to but what else am I supposed to do? I've got to try and make some friends to protect me from the basketball team until you get transferred again" Gabriella retorted. "And I am a freaky genius, it will come out sooner or later anyway."  
"I promised you that I won't be transferred again until you graduate" Maria reminded her daughter gently.  
"And that would be great Mom if I liked it here and made some real friends but I didn't and I hate it. Please don't turn down an opportunity for my sake" Gabriella replied hoping an opportunity to move would come up soon.  
"What about Kelsi. It doesn't sound like she'd have anything to do with this. Isn't she your friend?"  
"Yeah but I can't do the call backs by myself. It's a pairs audition.

"If she's truly a friend then Kelsi will be your friend whether you do the call backs or not" Maria gently scolded her daughter. "Now no more crying. Wash your face and come down and help me make dinner" she said not wanting her to stay upstairs alone.

-o0o-

After she was sure Gabriella was asleep Maria paced around the living room agitatedly. It was times like this she missed her husband's calming influence. She knew what he would have said. He would have pointed out that their Gabriella was a big girl now and she had to stay out of it and let Gabriella fight her own battles. She didn't disagree but she would have felt better about it if Alejandro was there to agree with her and help calm her down or distract her by putting her passion to better use.  
She tried to calm herself down by going out to the garage to practice throwing darts. It didn't help as much as it usually did because she didn't know what Troy looked like so she couldn't picture throwing them at his face. Getting frustrated with the darts she headed inside to bake brownies. Even if the baking didn't succeed in calming her down the treat might make Gabriella feel better and it would make a nice mess for her to take out her aggression on.

-o0o-

Gabriella came down next morning and looked at her mother suspiciously. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"Of course I am, how are you this morning?" Maria asked.

"Same old same old" Gabriella dismissed. "What's wrong? Are you being transferred again? I told you I wouldn't mind."

"No I'm not going to be transferred. I'm still settling in to this new role, I'm not ready to move on" Maria replied.

"You've been cleaning! You even scrubbed the floor!" Gabriella accused. "Who were you mad enough at to try and scrub them out of your existence? It isn't anything I've done is it?" she asked worriedly.

"No it's not your fault sweetheart. I'm fine now. You don't need to worry" Maria said reassuringly. "I made brownies, do you want to take some to school to share with your friends?"

"No thanks Mom" Gabriella replied, not wanting to tell her mother that it didn't feel like she had any friends that were worth her mother's brownies. Or that her stomach was cramping with anxiety at facing everyone again so much she doubted she'd be able to eat at all.

-o0o-

On the other side of town Lucille was inwardly cursing whoever had hurt her son, as Troy picked at his breakfast dejectedly. 'Never mind winning the championship he won't have enough energy to play if he keeps this up' she thought.

"You're going to sit there until you finish that" Lucille said gesturing to the mistreated breakfast. "You're not going to school on an empty stomach."

"Mom I'll be late" Troy protested half-heartedly. It would almost be worth missing school not to have to see Gabriella ignoring him again. Never the less he began to eat he wouldn't put it past his mother to get a spoon out and try to hand feed him if he continued to play with his food instead of eating it and began to shovel it into his mouth.

-o0o-

"Will you stop lecturing him about basketball?" Lucille demanded that, night after yet another meal where Troy had sat with his head down answering in monosyllables as he pretended to eat. "He's hurting and you ignoring how he feels isn't helping."

"He's going to feel even worse if his lacklustre attitude causes the team to lose the championships" Jack argued.

"He's trying. You've seen him out there on the court at all hours" Lucille retorted. "Can't you see he's totally miserable. He's not eating or sleeping properly. I'm afraid he's becoming almost clinically depressed."

Jack didn't reply.

"Even if you don't care how your son feels or what's hurting him you have to admit that if it's affecting his game then sorting out the problem will be the best way to make him feel better and will increase your chances of winning your bloody stupid championship" Lucille yelled.

"So what's wrong with him? How do we fix it? And what the hell happened between Troy and Chad?" Jack asked.

Lucille gave her husband a look that threatened to make him sleep on the couch for the next month if he didn't start taking his son's feelings more seriously. "Chad organised the whole team to attack him about being involved in the musicale auditions while they were getting ready for the championship game. Made him feel that he'd be letting the team down if he didn't pull out and go back to being the basketball guy with no other interests in his life except the team and the game" Lucille replied. "Troy feels betrayed and hurt, and he thinks that if they don't like him as he is then maybe they were never really true friends in the first place."

"Troy said that?" Jack asked astonished.

"No of course not. He's a teenage boy" Lucille said rolling her eyes. "but I'm his mother and reading between the lines of what he did say, that's how he's feeling. He's also incredibly upset that Gabriella has stopped wanting to spend time with him and he doesn't understand why she's changed her mind. He really likes her. He told me that he was waiting until after the championships to ask her out. Now he feels that he has nobody."

"But he's just met this girl" Jack protested.

"I seem to remember some other Bolton falling in love at first sight" Lucille reminded him smiling archly. "So your best bet for getting your basketball star back on the court ready to play would be to work out how to get Gabriella to forgive Troy and Troy to forgive the team" Lucille said to Jack. "Though I really don't know if it's possible."

"Troy always forgives Chad. They're like brothers" Jack said dismissively.

"Chad's never deliberately turned on him in front of all their friends before either. Or recruited their friends to turn on Troy as well like he did this time" Lucille replied. "This isn't some childish squabble, Troy feels Chad betrayed him and their friendship. It's going to take time to recover from even if Chad apologises and the longer it takes before he does apologise the less chance Troy will trust him again."

"They need to be able to work together as a team. I'll have a talk to Chad" Jack said.

"Be careful about that. If Troy thinks he's apologising because you told him to it will make things worse" Lucille warned her husband.

"Hey I can be subtle" Jack declared affronted.

"You perhaps" Lucille said doubtfully. "But you're depending on Chad's subtlety and that boy's about as subtle as a sledge hammer."

Jack groaned.

-o0o-

Lucille and Maria both became increasingly concerned over the next few days as their respective teenagers moped dejectedly, going through the motions of completing their schoolwork and extracurricular activities. For Lucille the crisis point came when Troy spent the entire morning trying and failing to shoot the basketball before firing it angrily at the fence and flopping down in despair. Grateful that Jack hadn't been home to see it she went out and sat next to Troy after he'd collapsed on the grass.

"What's going on Troy? You said Chad and Zeke apologised for ambushing you in the locker room. Why haven't we seen them around here? Surely you're not going to end a lifetime of friendship over a minor squabble?"

"They didn't just ambush me they set me up so Gabriella would hear me promise to give her and the decathlon up and tell them that she wasn't important to make the team calm down and work together to win the championship. Gabriella's still not talking to me and I wouldn't blame her if she never wants to be my friend again" Troy said in tears.

"Have you tried apologising sincerely and explaining to her what happened?" Lucille asked.

"No but I should right? I tried today and she just kept avoiding me. Maybe she just wants me to leave her alone" Troy said sadly.

"An apology will still probably make her feel better and if she still wants you to leave her alone after that then you'll just have to live with it" Lucille advised him. "Go to her and talk privately, this is not the time for grand public gestures. That will just embarrass her and make her believe you're making fun of her."

A/N: Thank you to pumpkinking5, everyturn, Guest, Simone, Countrygalxox, WildcatsLabyrinth2018 and Panthers14 for your support.

A/N2: This story will be completed to the end of the first movie. Let me know if you want me to continue through the second and third movies.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters or their mothers.

Maria opened the door and saw a young man standing there nervously. 'This is new. He's quite a nice looking boy. Maybe he can make Gabriella feel better' she thought as she looked at him enquiringly.

"Hi, Miss Montez, I'm Troy Bolton" the boy introduced himself.

"Oh, Troy!" Maria said surprised. She was surprised that he had the gall to turn up at Gabriella's door like this. Hadn't he hurt her daughter enough. She heard Gabriella on the stairs and looked over to see her shaking her head frantically.

"Um... Gabriella is kind of busy with… homework, so now's not a good time…" Maria told Troy preparing to shut the door.

Troy looked dejected, then stood a little straighter and began talking rapidly. "I made a mistake, Miss Montez, and I would really like to let Gabriella know that. Could you tell her I came by to see her?" Troy said earnestly.

'A mistake' Maria thought trying to hide her anger from the boy in front of her. 'He calls hurting my daughter like that a mistake?' At least she didn't need to say anything to Gabriella who was still listening on the stairs. And she had to give him some credit for coming over to apologise and for being willing to admit he was in the wrong even if he should have told her daughter not herself. Still it was likely he'd tried and Gabriella was avoiding him so maybe it was just as well he tried coming over here instead of making a scene at school. Her anger subsided a bit at his clear distress.

"I will... Troy" she agreed. "Good night"

Troy looked relieved. "Good night, thank you" he said politely. Maria was even more impressed that he hadn't lost his temper on being denied entrance or insisted on seeing Gabriella that night. She hoped Gabriella would talk to him tomorrow even if it was just to tell him outright to leave her alone though she didn't think that was likely. She was fairly sure that boy could sell ice to an Eskimo (if the Eskimo in question was female).

Maria just hoped he'd learned his lesson and wouldn't hurt her daughter so carelessly again if she forgave him.

She watched Gabriella carefully as she went back upstairs. Her daughter's walk seemed lighter. So Troy coming over appeared to have done some good even if Gabriella hadn't agreed to see him.

Maria returned to her favourite TV drama, the drama in her daughter's life temporarily forgotten.

-o0o-

Lucille watched bemused as whirlwind Troy blew through the kitchen grabbing food to eat on his way to school for an early morning rehearsal flashing her a grin and a quick kiss on the cheek as he passed.  
Everything had evidently all worked out a couple of days ago though Troy hadn't confided in her the details. The return of her happy little boy with his boundless energy was a welcome surprise. Thinking back she realised it had been quite a while since he'd been this enthusiastic about anything. She knew Troy loved basketball but since he'd been the youngest player in Jack's teaching history to make the senior varsity team as a freshman (and it hadn't been because he was the coach's son), basketball had also come with a lot of pressure and expectations that prevented him from just enjoying playing for the love of it.  
Lucille wasn't sure whether his new interest in theatre came because of the lack of pressure involved or was just the result of his crush on the new girl Jack had told her about. Either way she was happy about it and had warned Jack that if he did anything to ruin this for Troy he'd be sleeping on the couch until his son was happy again. 

-o0o-

Maria frowned suspiciously as everyone rushed out of the science room they were holding the scholastic decathlon in. The smell was truly atrocious, though she recognised that it wasn't actually toxic.  
She would bet her last dollar that the East High team had engineered the problem deliberately somehow, though she wasn't going to say anything to anyone without proof. She didn't believe her daughter would condone cheating though so she followed after her determined to see what was going on.  
She was surprised when they rushed to the auditorium and even more surprised to see her daughter smile at the crowd of people pouring out of the gym in what must be the middle of the game Gabriella had told her about. She was sure the girls had orchestrated the evacuation of the science lab, could they have caused the evacuation of the gym as well. 'Heavens above my daughter's going to get herself expelled!' she thought anxiously.

Wait! Miss Darbus, wait!" Gabriella and Troy ran up to the artificially blonde teacher Gabriella had described as eccentric and obsessed with the theatre and cell phones. 'This was the teacher that gave my daughter her first detention and now she's not going to let them audition because they are a minute or two late after somebody changed the audition day to the day Troy and Gabriella already had commitments' Maria thought frowning. 'If she doesn't let them sing I'm going to put in a written complaint about her.'

"We're ready, we can sing" they said.

"I called your names, twice" the teacher scolded the shaking her head.

"Miss Darbus, please! Please!" they begged.

"Rules are rules!" Miss Darbus said stubbornly. Maria tried to decide whether it would help to go down and offer her support or make things worse.

Maria couldn't hear whatever Gabriella and Troy tried to say next due to the noise of dozens of teenagers noisily pouring into the auditorium

"We'll be happy to do it again for our fellow students" the blonde girl on stage said smirking.

The teacher looked shocked at the crowd of people excitedly taking their seats and looking at the stage. "I don't know what's going on here, but in any event, it's far too late and we have not got a pianist" she said clearly trying to keep control of the situation.

"Well, that's show biz" a blonde boy commented smugly. Maria wished she could go down there and smack his smug face.

"We'll sing without a piano" Troy said desperately.

A petite girl, strangely formally dressed ran up. "Oh, no, you won't, Pianist here, Miss Darbus" she said smartly. 'This must be Gabriella's friend Kelsi. I like her. She looks sweet' Maria thought.

"You really don't wanna do that" a blonde girl said cattily. Maria disliked her on sight and hoped she wasn't one of the friends Gabriella had talked about.

"Oh, yes, I really do" Kelsi said getting up in the girl's face before rushing around to take her seat at the piano. "Ready on stage" she called.

Maria was pleased though surprised to hear the teacher back down, even sounding impressed at the little girl's defiance. "Now that's show biz."

-o0o-

Lucille spent the afternoon cursing the urgent job that had come in preventing her from leaving work to watch the championship game. She knew Troy would be disappointed not to see her there. She was busily issuing orders to her team trying to get done in time to at least watch the final quarter when Jack called her.

"Jack what's wrong is Troy hurt? Do I need to head to the school or the hospital?" Lucille panicked.

"Troy's fine Luce. There's a problem with the electric scoreboard and they've evacuated the gym just in case until it's been checked out" Jack replied.

"Oh that's good maybe I'll be able to get there in time to see Troy play" Lucille said putting Jack on speaker so she could keep working while they talked.

"Troy's gone to sing in the call backs" Jack told her.

"Without Gabriella?" Lucille asked surprised. She knew Troy had been enjoying rehearsing with Kelsi as well as with Gabriella but she had thought he wouldn't want to upset his new friend by auditioning without her. Maybe he wasn't as interested in becoming more than friends with this girl as she'd thought.

"The science labs have been evacuated too" Jack replied dryly. "Quite a coincidence wouldn't you say."

Lucille burst out laughing. "Yes it is. Do you really think Troy would mess with the score board like that?" she asked.

"Troy doesn't have the skill to do it on his own but if the scholastic decathlon team and Troy's friends are in on it too anything's possible. Jason's Dad is an electrician and Jason has been working with him part time. He might know how to tamper with the wiring and I wouldn't put anything past the computer whizzes on the decathlon team. I'm sure at least one of them is a hacker."

"It's good that his friends support him like that. Please say they're not going to get in too much trouble for it" Lucille pleaded.

"It will depend what they've actually done. If they damaged the scoreboard permanently or deliberately caused the wiring to short in a way that could've caused a fire I'm not going to be able to keep them from being suspended" Jack said not promising anything.

"Are you watching Troy sing?" Lucille asked.

"Wasn't planning on it?" Jack replied. "I'm trying to find out when we can get the game restarted."

"Go and listen to him Jack" Lucille ordered. "If they organised this with the scholastic decathlon team then I'm sure they planned it so the problem will resolve itself after they've sung."

"But.." Jack began before realising she'd hung up on him. Sighing he went to obey his wife's order. She'd be sure to ask about it later and find out if he didn't. Hr loved the woman but she could be vicious in defence of their son.

-o0o-

The music started and Maria held her breath as Gabriella appeared to freeze. She'd been worried about this since Gabriella had mentioned the call backs to her but hadn't wanted to bring it up and dissuade her daughter from trying. She had to hold herself back from running over to protect her little girl. Instead she watched gratefully as Troy rushed over and drew Gabriella's attention away from the crowd. 

"I can't do it, Troy, not with all these people staring at me" Gabriella said desperately begging him to understand.

Maria couldn't hear Troy's response but it obviously worked because Gabriella smiled at him and Troy gestured to Kelsi to restart the music.

Maria smiled in relief when Gabriella joined in after Troy started the song this time, grinning with pleasure when they really started getting into it and  
Gabriella's beautiful voice rang out across the auditorium. She couldn't believe how great they sounded, how happy her daughter appeared singing with Troy, and how much the crowd supported them. She was beaming in pride by the time they finished and couldn't wait to congratulate Gabriella.

Maria managed to catch Gabriella just after they announced that the electrical problems in the gym were resolved and Troy had to run off to resume their game.  
"I'm so proud of you" she said hugging her. "Do I want to know what you did to the electrically in the gym" she whispered.  
"Probably not" Gabriella replied tacitly admitting she'd been a part of it.  
"Please tell me or wasn't something you could be expelled for?" Maria asked seriously, looking her daughter in the eyes.  
"We used computer code to simulate a series of power fluctuations to the scoreboard. The wiring and scoreboard themselves shouldn't be affected" Gabriella explained. "They probably found the modem that connected it but it was a cheap one that one of the guys in the decathlon team had rebuilt. It shouldn't be able to be traced to anyone and Troy did pay him for the hardware. Besides we were all in on it the decathlon team and half the basketball team, they can't expel all of us. The only thing I'm worried about is that Coach Bolton is in charge of the gym and he'd like to stop Troy from being able to hang out with me. He's going to blame me and the musicale if Troy doesn't play well today.  
"I won't let him make you the scapegoat" Maria said fiercely.  
"Neither will Troy, Mom. Chad, Jason and Zeke said they'd take the blame if it comes to it. Sort of a way of paying Troy back from when they tried to stop him doing the call backs by manipulating him into saying that stuff" Gabriella replied smiling at her Mom's support.  
"So they were all in on it and Troy's forgiven them?" Maria asked vaguely disturbed by that.  
"I've forgiven them too" Gabriella replied firmly. "They came and admitted what they did. Chad and Troy have been best friends since kindergarten he knew exactly what to say to guilt and manipulate Troy. Taylor confessed her part in it and apologised too. Come and meet Taylor and the team. I'm sure you'll like them."  
"I'd rather meet your friend Kelsi" Maria replied.  
"Okay" Gabriella grinned pleased to have friends to introduce her mother to. Maybe then her Mom would stop feeling so guilty about moving to Albuquerque. Gabriella knew this last transfer had been her mother's choice. It was too big a promotion for it not to have been.  
"Hey Kelsi" Gabriella said joining the smaller girl. "This is my Mom Maria Montez. She wants to meet some of my friends."  
"Hello Ms Montez have you settled in to Albuquerque?" Kelsi said politely.  
"I'm settling in quite well. It helps to know Gabriella's made some good friends. She tells me that you wrote the song she just sang and the rest of the musicale. It was a beautiful song. I'm looking forward to hearing the rest."  
"Troy and Gabriella made it sound amazing" Kelsi said modestly.  
"If I get the part" Gabriella interjected. "I didn't hear Sharpay and Ryan sing. Were they better than us?"  
"I don't think so" Kelsi said loyally. "There performance was more polished but you guys sounded better and the chemistry between you two was electric. Ryan and Sharpay can't match that."  
"I should hope not seeing as they're brother and sister" Gabriella said dryly.  
"That would be more than a little disturbing" Maria agreed.  
Kelsi laughed. "That wouldn't stop Sharpay from trying if that's what she needed to do to get the lead role" she said.  
"Your Mom and Dad aren't here?" Gabriella asked.  
"No they're working, besides this is just auditions. Usually nobody comes. Mom might have been able to make it tomorrow but she's working this afternoon. They'll come to see the show" Kelsi replied not at all upset they weren't present.  
An announcement came over the PA "The science lab has been aired out and the scholastic decathlon will resume in ten minutes could all participants make their way back to the science building for a quick word with the judges."  
"Oh no" Gabriella said guiltily. "I hope they haven't found out we did it and penalised us too much."  
"Do you think they would've?" Kelsi asked. She'd been involved in the planning but the actual details were too technical for her.  
"Even if they don't know who was responsible or how we did it, it is our classroom it had to be someone from East High" Gabriella replied.  
"Did you even consider talking to the decathlon organisers to ask to delay the decathlon so you could audition first?" Maria asked as they exited the auditorium.  
"No because we'd have to have delayed the basketball game too and there were hundreds of people here too see it. Besides if we'd asked and they said no they'd have known it was us that caused the evacuations"  
Gabriella admitted.  
"There's no way coach Bolton would have agreed. He wouldn't want his team focused on anything but the game" Kelsi said accompanying them to the science labs.  
"Troy said he would make them miss their afternoon classes to prepare for the game if he was allowed to" Gabriella agreed.  
"Is Coach Bolton related to Troy?" Maria asked having forgotten Gabriella already told her he was Troy's father.

"Yeah Troy's the Coach's son" Gabriella replied.  
"It's can't have been easy for him to go against his father like this today" Maria commented.  
"He'll be in trouble for it if they lose" Gabriella replied. "He said if they win today all will be forgiven."  
"The judges reprimanded the East High team for the incident but they agreed since it was clearly not an attempt to cheat and had actually slightly advantaged the West High team who'd taken the opportunity to cram instead of attend the call backs, they wouldn't be penalised."  
West High weren't happy about the decision but had to admit it was fair and the competition resumed.

-o0o-

Lucille arrived at the gym just after half time and pushed her way through to sit behind the coaching position where Troy and Jack would look for her. Charlene Danforth moved across to let her squeeze in.  
"Glad you could make it. Our boys are on fire today" she greeted.  
"I can see that" Lucille agreed watching the play. "Their teamwork is better than ever it's almost as if they can predict where the other's going to be."  
"West High are going down" Annie Cross cheered. She was an old East High student herself and the rivalry between the two teams had been particularly fierce back in the day.  
"They certainly seem well outclassed by the Wildcats" Jennifer Baylor agreed.  
"I told you our boys are on fire. I doubt even the Redhawks could keep up with them tonight" Charlene said proudly.  
"Whether the Redhawks could have beaten them was academic but it was clear that the West High Knights were no real competition today though their last couple of games had been close. Lucille, Charlene, Annie and Jennifer enthusiastically cheered their son's to victory, only slightly more subdued than the rest of the student body. 

-o0o-

Maria sat and watched the rest of the decathlon proudly as Gabriella performed confidently leading the team to the win in the general knowledge quiz. This was where she'd always thought her daughter belonged among her fellow academics. Now though she had to admit Gabriella had seemed much happier after singing with Troy and talking to Kelsi than talking with her team mates after winning the decathlon.  
"Congratulations" Maria said as Gabriella came over and hugged her. That was another difference Maria noted after the audition I had to go to her she was busy with her friends, now she's happy to ditch the team to hang out with her mother.  
"Thanks Mom" Gabriella said smiling. "Do you want to meet my team and some of the other moms?"  
"I'd love to but I really need to get back to work. I've been gone longer than I expected to be" Maria replied.  
"I'm sorry" Gabriella said contritely.  
"Don't be. It was worth it to see you sing and to meet your friend Kelsi." Maria said hugging her daughter quickly. "I'm immensely proud of you Gabi and I will always be proud no matter what activities you choose to continue with."  
"Thanks Mom" Gabriella said almost overwhelmed.  
"I assume you'll be late home. There's sure to be some sort of celebration after such a busy afternoon. Call me if you're not going to be home by ten or you need me to pick you up."  
"Okay" Gabriella replied. "Thanks Mom."

-o0o-

Lucille stopped her progress towards her husband and son and watched as Chad shoved the basketball in Troy's face just before he could kiss Gabriella.  
"That boy of mine needs to learn a thing or two about timing" Charlene laughed.  
"So does Troy. Honestly this is no place for a first kiss" Lucille replied not sure if she was disappointed Troy was interrupted or grateful she wouldn't have to watch her son and the girl suck face before she'd even been introduced to her. 'If it's meant to be there'll be a better opportunity' she thought philosophically.  
It didn't look like that opportunity was imminent however as the young couple were separated by the crowd.  
No longer unsure of her welcome Lucille moved down to congratulate her son.  
"Hey Mama" Troy said happily. "When did you get here?"  
"Just after half time so I guess I have to thank you for delaying the game?" Lucille said questioningly. "You played very well. I'm proud of you." She added not telling him what she was truly proud about.  
Troy blushed. "I umm..." He stammered guiltily.  
"Your secret's safe with me and I don't think your father's going to be too upset all thugs considered" Lucille reassured her son, glad he still wasn't able to outright lie to her. "I've got to get back to work. Will I see you tonight?"  
"We might crash at Zeke's. he lives around the corner from Brad's" Troy replied. Lucille wasn't sure why Brad was hosting the after party when traditionally it would have been the captain's job but guessed it had something to do with the fact that Jack was already hosting the Coach's family BBQ for the team on Sunday she thought naively.

-o0o-

"Hey Mom" Gabriella said sleepily the next morning.

"Good morning Gabriella. Did you have fun last night? You were home quite late?" Maria said questioningly.

"Only five minutes. We underestimated the time it would take to walk back here" Gabriella replied.

"You're not in trouble" Maria reassured her.

"It was kind of fun though I'm not sure parties like that are really my thing" Gabriella said.

"Was there alcohol?" Maria asked.

"Some yeah. Troy didn't give me any" Gabriella replied not mentioning that Chad had spiked the coke and Jason had given her a cup of beer.

"Are you going out with Troy again?" Maria asked.

"He asked me to the movies on Saturday" Gabriella replied happily.

"The movies or the drive in?" Maria asked.

"There's a drive in around here?" Gabriella asked surprised.

"I was surprised as well" Maria said.

"Troy doesn't have a car. I don't even know if he can drive" Gabriella said.

"If he's sixteen I'd assume he can" Maria replied.

"Yeah he was sixteen in October. Are you telling me I can go to the movies, or that I can only go if it's not to the drive in?" Gabriella asked wanting to be completely clear.

"I'd be happier if you went to the cinema" Maria backed off from making a firm decision.

"Okay I'll talk to Troy" Gabriella agreed.

A/N: Thank you to Pumpkinking5, Simone, Tessssa and ashleythomp for your support.

A/N2: This is the end of High School Musical 1. I do intend to continue for the other two movies but this is all I have completed at the moment so it might be a bit of a wait.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters.

High School Musical 2

Chapter 1

Lucille sighed as she walked in to the boys roughhousing in her kitchen. " **Can we all redirect all this energy into carrying in the groceries?"** she said firmly.

" **Yes, Mrs Bolton** " the three chorused hastily as all four began helping. They were good boys at heart and it was good to see that their friendship had fully recovered after they misguidedly attacked Troy and his relationship with Gabriella earlier in the year. She still didn't see as much of them as she had in previous years but that was normal as Troy had grown and made new friends acting in the Musicale.

"What's got you all so excited?" she asked.

"Troy got us all jobs together" Chad replied.

"Troy's the man" Jason agreed.

"I get to work with a real chef" Zeke added dreamily.

"Mr Fulton from Lava Springs Country Club rang me and offered me a job. I mentioned Gabriella and our friends and he offered them jobs too" Troy explained.

"How do you know this Mr Fulton?" Lucille asked.

"I don't, he just said he was a fan of the Wildcats and had holiday jobs to fill. He offered me a job and I said if he had other jobs to fill I had the friends to fill them" Troy replied.

"Jack, do you know this Mr Fulton?" Lucille asked her husband.

"No" Jack replied frowning a little as he realised how odd it was.

"There's something strange going on" Lucille said suspiciously. "You've all applied for how many jobs and barely got any interviews and then this man calls you out of the blue and not only offers you a job you didn't apply for Troy but offers your friends jobs too to get you to agree to work for him?"

"Yeah but Lava Springs is a well known country club. Surely the worst that could happen is that we turn up and it was a prank" Troy said optimistically.

Lucille sighed. "I hope it's real too" she said thoughtfully, "I can't see how it would hurt to go and find out. But your father or I will drive you."

"Thanks Mama" Troy said kissing his mother's cheek.

-o0o-

Maria was surprised to be interrupted at work by her daughter's ringtone. Gabriella had always been good about not disturbing her mother while she was working even when they were in a new place. Here in Albuquerque she had lots of friends she could have rung if she needed assistance so Maria was slightly worried.

"I've got a job" Gabriella exclaimed as her mother answered the phone.

"That's great Honey" Maria replied smiling at her daughter's enthusiasm. "Where is it?"

"Life guarding at the Lava Springs Country Club" Gabriella replied, "Troy says it's about half an hour from here. I'm going to run the early morning water aerobics classes from six and there's a bunch of us working there so we can carpool."

"So how did all you get these jobs?" Maria asked.

"They rang Troy and he talked them into hiring me too" Gabriella said happily.

"That's wonderful" Maria said resolving to ask Troy more about it as soon as she could.

-o0o-

"Bolton residence" Lucille answered the phone expecting it to be one of Troy's friends calling.

"Hello Lucille, it's Maria Montez" Maria announced.

"Maria it's nice to hear from you. Is Gabriella enjoying her summer?" Lucille asked as a way of finding out if the girl was okay or if something was up between Gabriella and Troy.

"Yes she's very excited about this job at Lava Springs she said Troy got for her. I wondered if you could tell me more about it" Maria asked.

"It sounds too good to be true doesn't it" Lucille agreed. "I'm afraid I can't tell you much. I wasn't here when the manager rang Troy but Jack was in earshot and apparently the manager was very keen to have Troy work for them for some reason and when Troy mentioned Gabriella and his friends needing jobs too he offered them jobs as well. I looked up the resort on line and from what I can see Lava Springs is a large resort just out of town something between a country club and a fancy motel."

"But Gabriella said they offered her a job because Troy asked them to. If you don't know the owners that doesn't make any sense" Maria said confused.

Lucille nodded. "That surprises me too" she agreed thoughtfully. "But the resort is a reputable business that does have increased staffing needs in the summer and a reputation for hiring high school and college students to fill those vacancies so the jobs probably are genuine. The manager said they were Wildcats fans so they have some connection to the school. And they've hired Troy, Chad Jason and Zeke so I'm sure the boys will keep an eye out for Gabriella."

"Thanks Lucille that relieves my mind" Maria replied. "Has Troy been enjoying his summer? I've not seen much of him the last couple of weeks."

"He seems to be. He's outside playing basketball with the boys at the moment. Gabriella was over here for a while yesterday they seem to be getting along well" Lucille answered the unasked as well as the overtly asked question.

"I'm sure I'll see him soon. I'll have Gabriella invite him to dinner in the next couple of days" Maria replied. "I'm sorry but I've got to go. My two o'clock is waiting."

"I'm sure I'll hear from you soon. Let me know if we can help with carpooling the kids to work" Lucille replied.

"Thanks Lucille" Maria agreed ringing off.

-o0o-

"You know when Fulton rang, Troy mentioned Gabriella before he mentioned Chad and his mates?" Jack commented that night as they finished preparing for bed.

"He wants to spend the summer with his girlfriend. There's nothing strange about that" Lucille said casually. "And he did get jobs for his friends as well. It's not like he was trying to avoid them. I wouldn't worry about it." She rolled over and went to sleep.

Jack looked dubious but it was obvious that Lucille didn't think there was anything more to talk about.

-o0o-

" **Mother! Gabriella Montez and the Wildcats? Mother, how could you?** " Sharpay yelled marching into the yoga studio.

" **Think of your future, kitten. These are your school chums, not the fuddy-duddy Lava Springs staff"** Darby Evans replied looking up from her upside down position.

" **These are not my chums! They'll steal my talent show"** Sharpay whined.

" **And what fresh talent you'll have for your summer show"** Darby said calmly.

" **Mother, did you hear what I just said?"** Sharpay yelled.

Darby ignored her moving into the next pose.

" **Ryan, talk to Mother"** Sharpay ordered storming off.

" **Hi, Mom"** Ryan said cheerfully.

Darby smiled at her son. **"Ducky! How's my dashing boy?"** she gushed exchanging finger kisses. She knew her son's life wasn't always easy in his sister's shadow and that she and her husband had overindulged their children to their detriment but she was at a loss how to fix it now. **"Tell pumpkin if she worries too much, she'll get frown lines"** Darby said.

" **I told her twice** " Ryan replied joining his mother in standing on their heads. He sighed inwardly wishing his mother or father would at least try to reign in his sister even once.

His Mom returned to her yoga and was pleased when Ryan chose to join her but concentrated on her meditation.

-o0o-

"How did your first day go? Did you find out how Mr Fulton got your name?" Lucille asked as Troy arrived home.

"Lava Springs belongs to the Evans family their Sharpay and Ryan Evans are in my homeroom" Troy replied.

"I've never heard you talk about them. Are they friends of yours?" Lucille asked.

"Not really friends. They were in the musicale but they were the other couple Gabriella and I beat out for the lead roles so they weren't exactly friendly about it" Troy explained. "Ryan's okay but Sharpay's a real piece of work, she was bullying Kelsi to change her songs around and write her a bigger role the whole time we were rehearsing."

"Then why would they have wanted to give you and Gabriella jobs?" Lucille asked.

"Not me and Gabriella. Me. I was the one that wanted Fulton to employ Gabriella and Chad and the guys as well and I guess Gabriella mentioned her friends Taylor and Martha because they're working there too" Troy said.

"So this Ryan and Sharpay wanted you to work there but not Gabriella and the rest of your friends?" Lucille asked confused.

"I think it was just Sharpay, Ryan seemed surprised to see me. She was upset to see Gabriella and te others and she keeps flirting with me" Troy explained.

"So she got you a job working where she's spending the summer. That's a pretty extreme crush. Is she trying to cause problems for Gabriella?" Lucille asked.

"No but Fulton was really harsh with all of us. Not at all like he was on the phone. Gabriella noticed it too" Troy replied thoughtfully.

"So perhaps Fulton has now been told that Sharpay doesn't want the others working there" Lucille suggested.

"Yeah but he's the manager he doesn't have to do what Sharpay tells him does he?" Troy asked.

"She is the bosses daughter and there is probably a good reason she's as much of a spoiled brat as you've described. The girl is used to getting her own way, and if she's spent each summer at Lava Springs then the staff are used to indulging her as well" Lucille said.

"So what should I do?" Troy asked.

"Do your job, remember that you need to be polite to the Evans' whether you like them or not and try to enjoy your summer" Lucille said giving him a quick hug.

-o0o-

"Hi Gabriella" Maria said smiling as her daughter came in.

"Hi Mom" Gabriella replied tiredly.

"Did you have a good day?" Maria asked.

"Yeah I guess" Gabriella answered. "It was surprisingly tiring sitting watching the kids in the pool all day. I got offered a room in the staff quarters for nights when I have to work early the next morning. I'm sharing with Kelsi."

"That's nice but I'm always happy to drive you" Maria replied.

"I know Mom" Gabriella said giving her mother a quick hug. "It just might be nice sometimes to stay and hang out with my friends."

-o0o-

Darby was enjoying having a facial with her daughter when Ryan came in worked up about something he had to tell Sharpay immediately.

" **Hi, Mom** " Ryan said in his happy voice when he realised she was there.

" **Seaweed scrub, darling?"** Darby Evans said languidly.

" **Maybe later"** Ryan replied waiting for Sharpay to respond to whatever he'd told her. Darby wondered what had upset him and why he couldn't have waited until after their facials. She held her breath in anticipation of Sharpay's tantrum.

" **Ryan, it might be wonderful if Troy participates in our talent show"** Sharpay suggested smirking.

" **What? If he sings with Gabriella then our whole show is going to be the 'Troy and Gabriella Show'"** Ryan protested.

" **I'm not certain Gabriella is ideally suited to help Troy realise his full potential at Lava Springs"** Sharpay said schemingly. **"Mommy, what time is Daddy gonna be here?"** She demanded.

" **We tee off at noon. Join us?"** Darby said hopefully.

" **Love to"** Sharpay replied smiling calculatingly at her mother, who missed it completely, thinking how happy her husband would be to have the children join them for the afternoon.

-o0o-

"Hey, boys! So, Troy, I thought it was time for you to meet my parents" Sharpay said latching onto Troy as he and Chad walked up to meet whoever they were caddying for that afternoon.

" **Enchantée"** Darby said dramatically leaning forward to shake Troy's hand. Her daughter knew how to pick the best looking boy at the club for the summer but she hoped this one had better manners than last year's crush.

" **Awesome"** Troy replied unsure how to respond.

" **Hi"** Chad said.

" **Hello"** Darby replied less interested in this hanger on to the boy Sharpay was clearly interested in.

" **So, where's your dad?" Troy asked.**

A bright red helicopter landed on the edge of the course.

" **Hi, Daddy!"** Sharpay called as Brock Evans stepped off the helicopter.

" **Where's the first tee and what's the course record? I'm just kidding. I built the course myself and I hold the record, but who's counting?** " Brock told Chad and Troy who tried to look suitably impressed.

" **Princess"** Brock Evan's greeted his daughter then turned to his son.

" **Son, you've been working out"** he said encouragingly.

" **Yoga"** Ryan muttered not wanting to encourage his father into thinking that he had begun to enjoy lifting weights like a jock. In truth most of his muscle tone came from the numerous dance classes he did each week which his father seemed to know nothing about though his secretary paid the bills for. Still he smiled that his father thought he was in good shape.

" **Bring that around, there you go"** Brock said straightening Ryan's hat.

Darby smiled happily seeing the two of them interacting positively. She didn't mind that her husband had greeted the children first she knew it was a surprise to see them both here with her and he would make it up to her later.

" **Quite a season you boys had"** Brock greeted Troy and Chad.

" **Oh, Troy played for the golf team, too, Daddy"** Sharpay simpered.

" **Oh, versatile. How about you, son?"** Brock asked Chad.

" **Baseball. Track and field"** Chad replied proudly.

" **Outstanding"** Brock replied automatically.

" **Might come in handy the way I play golf. Fair warning"** Darby warned them.

" **Fore!"** Darby called as she took her shot overly careful to not to play her best to ensure she didn't show up Brock. She enjoyed golfing and was quite good at it when her husband wasn't around but life was easier when Brock was in a good mood, particularly with the children around. She was glad they'd both accompanied them today as she often wished they took more interest in their father's pursuits.

" **Brilliant, darling. Brilliant"** Brock called amused. Darby smirked at her successful deception.

" **Chad, you'll be caddying for Mother. Troy, Daddy"** Sharpay ordered.

" **Daddy."** Troy said looking at Chad then squaring his shoulders

" **Bravo!"** Darby cheered enthusiastically as her husband made the perfect drive.

" **Brilliant. Let's take a walk"** Brock said cheerfully. "Is that a new outfit?" he asked his wife.

" **Yes, just this morning. And yours?"** Darby replied pleased he'd noticed her new outfit.

" **This old thing? I got it last week."** Brock replied jokingly.

" **What do you think?"** Brock asked Troy patronisingly.

" **Well, it's 190 to the pin, downhill lie, elevated green. I'd go with a full five, sir"** Troy said confidently. Darby hoped for all their sakes that he was right.

" **Nice call"** Brock said having hit a shot he was happy with.

" **All right"** Sharpay squealed punching Troy's shoulder lightly.

" **Princess, grab your pitching wedge. This one's yours** " Brock said

" **Thanks, Daddy"** Sharpay simpered.

" **Line it up"** Brock instructed.

Instead of hitting the ball lightly onto the green a few feet in front of her Sharpay chipped the ball straight at Chad who threw himself on the ground to avoid it. **"Oops! oh well"** she exclaimed uncaringly.

" **That's my girl"** Brock said supportively. Darby grinned at his blind favouritism for his children. The man was a demanding an exacting boss and business partner but he'd always been a pushover as a father.

" **That girl needs to take up knitting! Or some sport where she can only injure herself"** Chad muttered to himself.

" **I'm in the sand"** Darby said to her husband flirtatiously.

" **Me, too"** Brock grinned at his wife making her heart flutter a little in spite of the years they'd been married.

" **Knees, hips, shoulders, hat"** Brock said encouragingly to Ryan straightening his hat again. **"Good. Drill it!"**

" **Backboard"** Ryan called as he putted the ball. The ball went past the hole and Darby picked it up and dropped it in for him.

" **Yes!"** Ryan fist pumped as if he'd got it in on his own.

" **That's my boy"** Brock cheered also ignoring Darby's interference in the shot.

Darby watched Troy call out to the new female lifeguard as the golf course passed near the pool. **"Gabriella! Dinner tonight? Sneak a swim?"** He was almost immediately interrupted by Sharpay in her gold cart who almost ran him over in her eagerness to reclaim his attention.

'So that's Sharpay's competition' Darby thought feeling vaguely sorry for the brunette. Nobody could win against an Evans when they set their minds to something.

" **Oh, lovely, darling"** Darby praised Brock's shot trying to sound bright and enthusiastic.

" **Daddy, why not let Troy try a shot?"** Sharpay suggested.

" **Of course. Of course"** Brock agreed smiling. It would be good to have some genuine competition.

" **No, I shouldn't"** Troy protested worried that he was there to work.

" **Come on"** Brock encouraged.

" **Are you sure?"** Troy asked.

" **Yeah!"** Sharpay squealed excitedly.

" **Are you sure it's okay, Mr Evans?"** Troy asked uncertainly.

" **It sure is"** Brock agreed. Darby wondered if the reluctance was feigned though it seemed genuine enough and also if she should warn the boy to lose to her husband if he wanted to remain on good terms but figured that he couldn't beat him anyway if golf wasn't his premiere sport.

" **Give it a ride** " Brock said handing over the driver.

" **Thank you"** Troy accepted. He took a deep breath and lied up the shot hitting it perfectly.

" **That's a beautiful swing"** Brock said admiringly

" **Really beautiful"** Darby agreed worried he would be upset if Troy continued to play that well.

" **Oh. That is a beautiful swing"** Brock repeated himself.

" **That was awesome"** Chad said honestly happy his friend was making a decent impression.

" **Thanks, man"** Troy said **"Come on! What do you say we..."**

Sharpay interruptedpulling him into her golf cart

" **Off we go"** Brock said linking arms with his wife.

" **I'm saving up for a car. I'm saving up for a car"** Chad muttered to himself struggling to carry the golf bags while Troy played. Ryan also looked pissed off though he didn't complain.

" **Well, Tiger Woods would have been proud to make that putt!"** Darby praised.

" **What a shame that Troy is only bussing dishes all summer, given that he's a potential star for your alma mater, Daddy"** Sharpay said suggestively.

" **I've seen Troy play basketball. I think the U of A Redhawks will be very interested in him"** Brock said confidently.

" **That's inspired, Daddy. Troy is very concerned about college"** Sharpay replied batting her eyelashes at her father. It was clear that his princess wanted him to pay more attention to the boy. Brock gave in as he always did.

" **Really?"** Brock said consideringly. He could certainly do something to help this boy who from what he'd seen was a certainty for a scholarship anyway. It would be good for him to have the young man feel indebted to him, and it would make his daughter happy with him too.

" **How's Coach Bolton these days?"** Brock asked.

" **Oh, fantastic"** Troy replied aware that Mr Evans really wasn't interested in the answer.

" **Outstanding"** Brock replied.

Darby rolled her eyes wondering how long it would take for the young man to realise that 'outstanding' was Brock's standard response when other people would have said something like "Good or made a noise of agreement.

Darby was amused by Sharpay's efforts to manipulate her father, and slightly surprised seeing it seemed to be mostly to someone else's benefit. It didn't take long to deduce that her daughter had a crush on the boy though it didn't seem to be reciprocated even the slightest bit.

A/N: Thank you to pumpkinking5, marissamtz03, guest, lenabui98, simone, lillysmj, lilamz57, Elise Monteith Michele, , BrandyBELLE05, Sheram2206, Miisakee, WBHOAlover1, Rick Slader, percyandannabeth-jacobandness, DarkHunteress25, janeway1979, kristannalove13, leannemeister5, Janeite76 and Kwing77 for your support.


	5. Chapter 5

High School Musical 2

Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters.

Darby sat listening to her husband tell amusing stories to their guests at dinner that night. Peter was an old friend of Brock's and his current wife Clair wasn't too bad, she at least made an effort to fit in and seemed quite content to be overlooked most of the time so she didn't have to make too much effort to make conversation with the woman.

" **Hey! Here's our superstar. Troy Bolton, this is Peter"** Brock said as he and the other man stood to greet Troy as Fulton brought him in all dressed up as per Darby's orders. If she was going to introduce the boy to her friends she wanted to make sure he at least looked like he fit in with their sort of people.

" **Peter. Good to meet you"** Troy shook hands.

" **How are you?"** Peter said.

" **This is Claire"** Brock introduced.

" **Hello"** Claire greeted from her seat.

" **And you know the family"** Brock added finishing the introductions.

" **Hello"** Darby said politely, before frowning at her son for his complete lack of reaction.

" **This kid's pretty handy on the fairways as well as the hard court. Bet you worked up yourself an appetite lugging those bags all over the place, huh?"** Brock said.

" **Yeah, yeah. A little bit"** Troy said feeling guilty that Chad had ended up carrying both bags and he was the one being rewarded.

" **What do you say we get some food, and we can talk about your future"** Brock suggested.

" **My future?"** Toy asked surprised.

" **Yeah, sit down"** Brock ordered.

" **Have a seat"** Peter seconded.

" **Daddy's on the board of directors at the University of Albuquerque** " Sharpay informed Troy

" **So, Troy, I saw your championship game. I mean, wow! That last-second shot at the buzzer... Outstanding"** Charlie said excitedly.

" **Actually, my teammates here stole the ball, otherwise I wouldn't have had a chance..."** Troy protested.

" **Oh, you're much too modest, Troy. You were voted MVP for the entire season"** Sharpay simpered holding onto him.

Darby listened amused as Sharpay flirted non-stop with the clearly uncomfortable boy. She had to admit that her daughter had good taste. The boy was good looking, polite, modest and according to her husband could have a very bright future playing basketball. One thing he clearly wasn't though was interested in Sharpay even if her daughter refused to see it. Darby wondered idly if it would be better if she told her daughter to back off as she seemed to be making the boy uncomfortable and not is a good way. She was enjoying watching her daughter's manipulation, though it lacked the subtlety she liked to employ, and she didn't think Sharpay would listen to her opinion anyway. The girl never seemed to take any notice of anybody's opinion except her own.

" **This shirt positively screams for a Windsor knot"** Sharpay said grabbing his and retying his tie.

" **Thank you"** Troy said clearly uncomfortable.

" **Let me get that for you"** Sharpay said.

" **You know, we've got a heck of a basketball programme over at U of A, and an excellent scholarship programme as well"** Brock said.

" **Scholarship?"** Troy asked interestedly.

" **Yeah. You know, between the two of us here, we... We pull a little weight over at the school"** Brock said jovially. Darby wondered how true that really was, they liked to think they had influence but at the end of the day they would offer places to the players that had the most to offer, the team needed to win after all. She also wondered if the boy was aware they while they might be able to pull some strings Brock could quite easily veto offering him a scholarship as well if things didn't work out the way Sharpay wanted them to.

" **Well, time flies when you're having fun, but Mr Fulton will probably want me clocking out"** Troy said trying to escape.

" **Come on. Don't be silly. You haven't had any dessert, and we haven't talked about golf, yet"** Brock protested.

Darby inwardly rolled her eyes, she didn't mind playing golf, even when she was playing with her husband and couldn't play her best but did he have to talk about it all the time. Hadn't he realised that neither of their children was at all interested in the game. Ryan was sitting slumped in his chair looking sulky. She gave him a little kick under the table to pull himself together and at least use the good manners she'd put so much time and effort into teaching him even if he didn't want to join in on the conversation.

" **Oh, basketball and golf are just the beginning with Troy, Daddy. Have you heard him sing?"** Sharpay said holding on to his arm and beaming at him.

" **Oh, triple threat"** Brock managed to sound impressed though he really thought the boy's time would be better used concentrating on athletic pursuits.

" **Oh, how wonderful. Troy can participate in the talent show"** Darby said pleased that there would be an extra act that actually might be work listening to.

" **Oh, come on, Troy. Give them a sample. Kelsi!"** Sharpay ordered.

" **Kelsi. No, actually my voice is... Is feeling a little bit hoarse tonight, you know, all the talking. But thank you very much for the food and the golf and everything. It was amazing"** Troy said anxiously, feeling like he was being asked to perform like a monkey.

" **But you will sing some other time, though? With me. Promise?"** Sharpay entreated.

" **Promise"** Troy unknowingly walked into her trap

" **Perfect"** Sharpay smiled craftily.

-o0o-

"Hey Luce wanna go for a test drive with me?" Jack offered coming in from working on the old rust bucket of a truck he was fixing up.

"Why on earth would I want to get in that thing?" Lucille said incredulously.

"I think the brakes are working and I've got it running well enough to give it to Troy next time he's home long enough to help me with it" Jack replied.

"You're going to give that death trap to my son?" Lucille asked.

"It's not a death trap. I've totally replaced the brakes, they work as well as yours do and it handles pretty well for a tonne of solid metal. Come for a ride and you can see for yourself" Jack encouraged.

Lucille sat quietly while Jack headed out of town in the truck, paying careful attention to the handling and braking ability.

"Is it fun to drive?" She asked once she was satisfied it was safe.

"It is" Jack confirmed. "It's heavier to steer though. I wouldn't want to drive it full time but it will help Troy build up strength and endurance in his shoulders and arms."

"And he doesn't spend enough time working out to do that already?" Maria asked dryly. "Is that why you bought such a big truck?"

"Hey, this is so much cooler than anything else I could have bought for the price" Jack protested. "And I couldn't have helped him fix up and maintain a new car, they have too much electronic stuff that can go wrong that I know nothing about."

"Can I drive for a bit? I want to know how it feels" Lucille said.

"Sure let me get onto a quiet street" Jack replied.

Lucille rolled her eyes at her husband's automatic assumption that she wouldn't be able to handle the truck. 'She was a good driver' she thought indignantly.

A few minutes later she had to admit Jack might have been right. She was a good driver but she was used to her little car and even Jack's SUV had power steering. Even after watching Jack she had underestimated how much effort she needed to put into turning the corner and almost veered into the oncoming lane which was thankfully empty. She pulled up just after that. "I need to spend more time in the gym. That's quite a workout" she said ruefully.

Jack laughed. "You spend too much time sitting at your desk" he commented.

-o0o-

Lucille couldn't help but keep peeking out the window as Troy and Jack worked on the truck, anticipating Troy's reaction when Jack handed over the keys. She didn't think Troy had any idea that the truck was for him.

She smiled as Troy came running in all excited to clean up so he could take his new truck for a drive.

Jack followed him in shaking his head. "Did he tell you I gave him the truck?" he asked confused. "I thought he'd be eager to take it for a drive."

"He told me. He's gone to get cleaned up before taking it out" Lucille replied.

"Why would he need to clean up before driving it? He wasn't that dirty" Jack asked.

Lucille just looked at him.

"Oh" Jack said understanding. "I kind of thought he'd show Chad and his mates first, they're more likely to appreciate it."

"You're probably right about the boys' appreciation of the work you two have done in fixing it up" Lucille said. "But I'm sure it's Gabriella that will be riding in the passenger seat the most."

-o0o-

"I don't know Mom. Dad says not to worry about it but it feels really awkward to be sitting with the Evans while Chad and Jason serve me meals and drinks" Troy said to his mother that night.

Lucille nodded, "I understand but it's no more awkward than if you'd got a summer job at McDonalds or one of the pizza places or that diner you like to go to and your friends came in while you were working. So long as you're polite to them there shouldn't be a problem."

"Okay" Troy replied, more comfortable with the situation now his mother had accepted it too.

"How's your new job. I heard you've been promoted" Lucille said.

"Yeah though I really don't think I deserved it. Teaching the children golf is hard work. None of them really want to be there, I'd rather be down the Y helping Dad coach the kids' basketball" Troy replied. "I kinda miss working in the kitchen with the others too."

"And how's Gabriella?" Lucille asked.

"She's great but I don't see nearly as much of her as I thought I would. I mean it's wonderful that Mr Evans set up the opportunity for me to train with the RedHawks but it takes a lot of me time and my new job means I don't have the same lunch and dinner breaks as the others either."

"Have you made new friends on the Redhawks team?" Lucille asked.

"Kinda" Troy replied. "They're all friendly but I get the feeling that they'll only really be my friends if I play for the team."

"Then you need to make sure you make some time for your real friends too Troy" Lucille said gently. "Your father said you'd been spending a lot of time with the Evan's what's that like?"

"They're friendly enough too but I get the feeling that they're just doing all this for me to make Sharpay happy and I don't know what she wants from me" Troy replied.

"So that could also be why they employed you and your friends" Lucille suggested.

"Yeah but it doesn't exactly make sense. Last year I was sure that Sharpay didn't like me and she certainly doesn't seem to like my friends especially Gabriella. Why would she have given them all jobs as well" Troy said confused.

"She wouldn't have had anything to do with the actual hiring. I imagine the manager was told to hire you and when you mentioned the others he offered them positions too so you'd accept" Lucille explained.

Troy frowned and nodded. "It feels like she's manipulating my whole summer."

"Then don't let her" Lucille replied. Unfortunately, while Troy had every intention of taking his mother's advice he got caught up in everything happening and forgot.

-o0o-

"Sharpay says she's not going to sing 'Humu humu with me in the Star Dazzle Talent Show. She and Troy are going to sing a song Kelsi wrote for Troy and Gabriella" Ryan told his mother as they got massages.

"That's interesting" Darby commented not really listening.

"It's not fair Mom, if Sharpay sings with Troy what will I do?" Ryan whined.

"There there ducky it will all work out. Let's go and I'll buy you an ice-cream" Darby said. "I need coffee."

"I'm not a little kid Mom" Ryan protested.

"Then I'll buy you a coffee too" Darby said linking an arm in his and moving to walk off.

"Mom" Ryan protested.

Darby actually started paying attention. "If Sharpay is singing with Troy perhaps you should ask that Gabriella girl to sing with you."

"Thanks Mom, that's a good idea" Ryan said surprised.

"Now are you coming for coffee?" Darby asked. Her voice was impatient but her face was impassive, frowning would cause wrinkles.

-o0o-

Maria smiled as Gabriella's friends arrived at the picnic sight for the barbeque after their softball game. Then she frowned slightly seeing Gabriella get out of a cart with Taylor and the blonde boy from the musicale. She looked around for Troy and saw his team mates goofing around but no sign of him. "Gabriella, can you come and help for a moment?" she called.

"Sure Mom" Gabriella said coming over.

"Where's Troy?" Maria asked once they were alone.

Gabriella looked at her mother miserably. "I don't know I guess he lost track of time hanging out with the Redhawks again and forgot that he'd promised to play softball with us today."

"And are you hanging out with the blonde boy to make him jealous when his friends tell him about it or to pay him back somehow?" Maria asked.

"Ryan?" Gabriella asked astonished. "No he's just a friend. We've been trying to talk him into helping to choreograph our entry into the Star Dazzle Talent competition. I feel sorry for him, he's not staff and he doesn't really fit in with the guests' kids either."

"Be careful Gabriella. That boy likes you. You don't want to hurt him" Maria warned.

"He doesn't like me like that" Gabriella said decidedly. "He's just lonely. He doesn't have many friends."

"I think he does like you like that" Maria warned.

"And I think he's more likely to develop a crush on Chad than me" Gabriella retorted watching her new friend watch the curly headed boy.

Maria just chuckled acceptingly and headed over to offer Ryan some brownies. "If the boy was going to hang out with her daughter she wanted to know more about him."

-o0o-

Maria chewed anxiously on her bottom lip as she sped towards Lava Springs. Gabriella had called her asking her to come and get her, saying she couldn't be there anymore.

Maria expected that she'd probably had another fight with Troy and hoped that Gabriella's friends were able to support her until she could get there.

She arrived to find Gabriella hurrying across the carpark with Troy following calling out for her to stay. Gabriella threw herself into the car almost before it had stopped moving and begged her mother to drive off.

"What happened?" Maria asked.

"The same as last time, Troy blew me off again for Sharpay, he's pulled out of the number we're doing for the talent show to sing with Sharpay. I just couldn't stay here and watch her manipulate Troy any more."

"And why was Troy chasing after you, he looked pretty upset?" Maria asked wanting the whole story.

"He was upset when I told him I was leaving" Gabriella said. "He tried to make a heap of promises that he'd change but I just couldn't believe him again."

"What's this girl got that you don't?" Maria asked affronted.

"Parents on the board of U of A, an introduction to the basketball coach and the sports scholarship selection committee, the ability to offer him a job that pays a tonne more that his kitchen job did for a lot less work" Gabriella listed. "I believe him when he says he's not interested in a relationship with her but he's letting her manipulate all his time. He no longer has time for me."

"I understand that he thinks he needs to do everything he can to get a scholarship. College is expensive and he's afraid his parents really can't afford it though they've never said that to him I know they would find it difficult" Gabriella said trying to be reasonable. "I just didn't expect it to hurt so much to see it."

"A college scholarship could be the difference between starting your working life in a good financial position verses being tens of thousands of dollars in debt" Maria replied gently. "You can't blame him for doing his best to get offered one if they're promising him that. But surely the Evans don't have that much influence on team selection, the reputation of the whole team depends on them getting the best players they can. If Troy is good enough to get a scholarship, he will be offered one! Is he good enough?"

"He's really good but less than 3% of guys who play high school basketball even get to play for a college team let alone get a scholarship" Gabriella replied. "And Sharpay got her Dad to introduce him to the coach of U of A and he's been invited to practice with the team so his work hours are arranged around that. And the other day he had lunch with the scholarship selection committee."

"So you've given up your job at Lava Springs with your friends to get away from the sight of Troy with this girl? Did you tell him you were leaving? And he just let you go?" Maria asked disapprovingly. She was glad to have her daughter home more often and would put in for some holiday leave to spend more time with Gabriella but she couldn't approve of a sixteen-year-old quitting a job she enjoyed over a boy.

"He was upset. He didn't understand how I felt this way. He wanted me to stay and promised to try harder to spend time with me but he's been breaking his promises all summer. I couldn't bear to get my hopes up again if he didn't keep them" Gabriella replied.

Maria reached over and patted her daughters hand. "I love you Mija" she said.

Gabriella gave a small grateful smile. "I love you too Mom."

They lapsed into silence, Maria didn't know what else to say. She wasn't sure her daughter was doing the right think quitting her job but she couldn't deny that she was happy to have her home. She worried how being home alone while all her friends were working would affect her.

-o0o-

Lucille sent Jack in to talk to Troy. She was worried he seemed so depressed and thought he might open up to his father seeing as he'd ignored her careful questioning.

" **You've barely been out of this room the last three or four days**. **Let's call the guys, get a game going** " Jack suggested trying to get his son to stop moping about in his room.

" **They wouldn't come even if I called** " Troy said listlessly.

" **I find that hard to believe** " Jack replied.

" **Dad, do I seem different to you this summer**?" Troy asked

" **You dress a lot better, that's for sure"** Jack said jokingly trying to lighten Troy's mood. Lucille listening at the door wasn't surprised it didn't work though Jack was.

" **Oh, man, I'm serious. Maybe my friends are right, maybe I'm turning into a jerk**

 **with new shoes"** Troy said frustrated.

" **New shoes, not a new kid. Where's this coming from?"** Jack asked finally seeing why Lucille was so concerned.

" **I've been so focused on my future. I mean, Gabriella quit. Chad won't talk to me. I don't see the Wildcats running around here** " Troy said despondently.

" **Is this about going after what you want?"** Jack asked astonished.

" **Yeah, Dad. The scholarship's important. I get it** " Troy said frustrated.

" **Hey, hey.** **Look, it's only a big deal if it makes sense to you** " Jack said. Had he really been pushing his son that hard to get a scholarship that he thought he had to give up his girlfriend and his mates to get one.

" **I don't even know who I am any more** " Troy said sighing.

Jack picked up a picture of Troy taken at the start of last season. " **You know what?** " he asked showing the picture to Troy. " **I've known this kid for a long, long time. And I got a lot of faith in him. He looks a lot like you. I'm absolutely sure he's going to figure out the right thing to do**."

Lucille listened at the door as Troy spoke with Jack. She was a little jealous that he'd not confided in her but she was more relieved that he'd confided in them at all. It had hurt when Troy had happily accepted the job at Lava Springs and virtually moved out without even talking to them about it and she'd barely seen him since. And now he was hurting and it hurt her more to know she barely knew what was going on in his life let alone how to help him.

-o0o-

Lucille held tightly to Jack's arm as they walked across the grass. "Good thing it's a warm night" she said in spite of shivering slightly, wrapping her stole over her bare shoulders.

"I told you to wear the pantsuit" Jack replied without thinking.

"Look around you. I would be totally out of place in a pantsuit" Lucille exclaimed crossly. The waiter led them over to the front table and Jack remembered Troy telling him they were sitting with the Evans and some bigwigs from U of A. None of them had arrived yet but Jack knew they were a little early. Luce had been worried about how Troy's apology had been received by his friends and had insisted on being there as soon as possible to support him.

"I hope for your sake the daughter isn't too much like her mother" he whispered to Lucille.

"Oh?" Lucille asked.

"I think she's got to be the most self centred student I've ever taught. I can't see what Baylor sees in her" Jack explained.

"If Zeke likes her what's Troy doing singing with her. It isn't like him to treat a friend like that. I thought he was trying to make amends with them not upset them all over again" Lucille said worriedly.

"She wasn't giving him much choice" Jack replied. "Not to mention she's been dangling her father at him and giving him the impression that keeping her happy will greatly improve his chances at a scholarship."

"I'm not sure how well that's going. I don't even know if he's going to sing tonight. He was going to ask for his kitchen job back which would disqualify him from being in the show" Lucille said.

"Then what are we doing here?" Jack asked.

"Supporting our son" Lucille replied firmly. "Besides it can't hurt to meet the U of A board and scholarship selectors even if Troy is only waiting tables tonight."

It didn't take long for Lucille to realise that Darby Evans beautiful manners masked a truly spectacular degree of self absorption. Brock Evans was more likeable if a little egocentric he at least appeared to listen to what she and Jack had to say and seemed pleased to meet Troy's parents.

Lucille smiled as Troy came onstage. He looked totally unlike himself in a white suit. She watched proudly as he confidently began the song then turned to see what he was looking at when he stared in shock.

Lucille watched suspiciously as Gabriella joined Troy on stage. She could see from the happiness in her son's eyes that he'd instantly forgiven his girlfriend for leaving him and was hoping she wanted to get back together. Lucille wanted to be happy for him and she sent up a little prayer to whomever was listening that the girl wouldn't break her son's heart all over again.

-o0o-

"Hi Ms Montez" Troy said smiling slightly nervously as Gabriella's mother answered the door next morning. He and Gabriella had worked things out the night before but Ms Montez hadn't been at the talent show and he didn't know what Gabriella had told her mother about their break up or getting back together.

"Gabriella's upstairs. She'll be down in a minute. She told me the two of you sang beautifully last night even if you didn't win."

"We were never going to win. Fulton had already been told Sharpay had to win before the show started. It was only Sharpay's interruption that let her brother win. That whole place asks how high when Sharpay says jump. I'm more sorry than I can say that Gabriella got hurt because I got caught up in it."

"Gabriella will be glad when the summer's over" Maria said noncommittally.

"So will I to be honest" Troy agreed. "It's been good to be able to put some money aside for college. And it was great to train with the Redhawks. I think my game's improved training at that level but it's made me glad I have another year at high school before I need to deal with all that."

"Hey Troy, you looking forward to the party?" Gabriella said running downstairs lightly.

"Yeah Taylor says they've gone all out organising it" Troy said smiling. "You look beautiful. Are you ready to go?"

"Thanks Troy" Gabriella smiled happily.

"Be home by eleven" Maria said as they left.

"Sure thing Ms Montez. You have a good day" Troy said politely.

Maria watched them go concerned. Gabriella was much happier again now that the trouble between she and Troy was sorted out but Maria was worried that it might be temporary. If Troy could take her daughter for granted and break his promises once then he obviously wasn't as committed to their relationship as Gabriella was and she worried he would do it again next time something came up. They both seemed too serious for a first boyfriend though she remembered how intense all her feelings were at that age. She vowed to keep a closer eye on the situation and hoped Troy wouldn't break her daughter's heart again.

A/N: Thank you to pumpkinking5, simone (Guest), PegasusForever and jmood for your support.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOT give permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.

-o0o-

Lucille sat in the bleachers eagerly waiting for the game to start and distract her from her worries. Along with the usual anxiety of whether they would play well she was worried about Troy's already injured calf. She strongly suspected that if this wasn't the championships Jack would've refused to let him play for another week. And if Troy wasn't the leading point scorer by such a large margin and if he was someone else's son he might not have let him play tonight either. But it was the championships, there were more scouts here tonight than she'd seen at a game in a long time and There was a great chance that the MVP of the winning team would have their choice of scholarships. She only hoped that playing wouldn't make his injury worse.

She was also worried about the after party they put on for the team at the end of every season. Not only her regular worries, whether there would be enough meat for the barbecue. Whether the other mothers would bring a decent mix of salads and desserts not all one or the other. The success of the party depended on the Wildcats winning tonight too otherwise it would feel more like a wake (if they were lucky). She remembered years ago the last time the team had made it into the final championship and lost. The way the team members blamed each other for the loss and the fights that broke out. And the fact that instead of trying to calm down the situation a lot of the parents were worse than the players, bitching about how this player or that hadn't pulled their weight in the game and how this loss might deprive their son of a college scholarship. In Lucille's mind this was rubbish, scholarships weren't determined by which team won the championship but how an individual player performed under pressure. In fact, in Jack's experience the best player on a losing team was more likely to get a scholarship than the second best player on the winning team.

The game started and Lucille stopped worrying, enjoying seeing her son play the game he and his father loved so much. 'He was playing well too' she thought proudly. 'Not well enough though' she noted as the other team scored again and again. Half time came and all her worries returned while the teams took a break, they were behind and she worried about how her boys were coping.

The Wildcats came back from half time on fire and quickly made up most of the difference. Her breath caught as Troy was knocked over and her heart began to pound when he didn't immediately get up. She heard Gabriella call out frightened as she waited anxiously. Finally, Troy got to his feet, he appeared to be okay and play resumed. The final siren rang awarding the Wildcats the win for the second year in a row and Lucille cheered with the rest of the crowd. Unlike everyone else though she was still watching carefully as her son celebrated with his team. She knew that he would be on too much of a high to be feeling any pain right now but she saw he wasn't limping so he at least hadn't damaged his leg further. Reassured she relaxed and looked around the crowd. The scouts she'd identified earlier were mostly watching the Wildcats, though several were also talking to the seniors on the West High Knights team. That was okay though, Troy was currently riding on his team's shoulders holding up the trophy so they'd have to wait to speak to him anyway. She waited to congratulate him after the game then hurried home the success of the party now confirmed. Nobody would care even if there were sixteen different types of potato salad and no greens or desserts now the team had won.

-o0o-

Lucille looked around contentedly, the party was in full swing and everyone appeared to be having a good time. Looking around again she realised that most of the team had arrived, the only two missing were Troy and Chad. Troy had insisted on driving his truck to school today in spite of the fact it hadn't been running well and she was worried they'd broken down somewhere. Or maybe she was hoping they'd broken down and hadn't stopped to somehow buy alcohol to spike the punch with.

She resolved to give them another ten minutes before she asked Charlie Danforth to go looking for them. Just as she was about to interrupt Charlie and ask him to go find them, the boys arrived. She frowned realising she hadn't heard the sound of Troy's truck.

"Did you break down again?" She asked.

"Yeah but only half a block away so we brought it home" Troy replied. "Great party Mom."

"Go and get yourselves some food before you miss out" Lucille said affectionately.

"I will I just need to find Gabriella" Troy replied.

Lucille smirked as Chad rolled his eyes. "Make sure she eats too" she compromised.

-o0o-

Maria was warmly greeted by Martha's mother and Kelsi's mother. They were there because Martha was one of the cheerleaders and Kelsi had written several new catchy cheers for them this year. They started out talking about the game but because none of them had a child playing or an all-consuming interest in basketball, they soon moved on to other things. "Martha got an early acceptance into my Alma Mater 'Sarah Lawrence'" Nancy Cox said proudly.

"Kelsi has applied for several schools all in New York but Juilliard is her first choice and we're still waiting to hear from them about an audition date" Caroline Neilson replied. "What about Gabriella?"

"Gabriella's acceptance to Stanford arrived this morning" Maria said pulling out the letter. "It was her father's dream that she go there and her dream too since we lived in that area for nine months when she started high school."

"Congratulations" Nancy said. "It's a real relief to know the girls are following their dreams."

"Yes, and since she got a scholarship I can choose the transfer close to California instead of taking Alaska for the extra money so she'll be able to visit regularly" Maria said happily.

"That's great! The only downside of Martha getting into my Alma Mater is how far away it is" Nancy said.

"I'll be in the same boat if Kelsi gets into Juilliard or NYU. There's no way we could afford to bring her home for the weekend if she gets homesick she'll have to tough it out til the end of term" Caroline commiserated with Nancy.

"But the two of them won't be that far from each other. They could visit and support each other" Maria suggested.

"Kelsi will miss Gabriella if she's on the other side of the country" Caroline said. "They've become really close in the last year."

"Yes I don't think any of her friends are planning on going to college in California" Maria replied worriedly. "They're all either staying here or moving further east."

"She'll make new friends. Look at how quickly she made friends here" Nancy said supportively.

Maria knew it hadn't been that easy. In fact, if it hadn't been for Troy, Gabriella might never have made close friends here just like she hadn't trusted herself to make close friends in any of the other high schools she'd been to. She'd been incredibly grateful to him at the time but now she wondered if leaving their relationship would hold Gabriella back from embracing this new chapter of her life fully.

-o0o-

" **Coach, got a couple of empty lockers at U of A?"** Jack Bolton asked the U of A coach he'd persuaded to come and celebrate the win with them tonight.

" **Hopefully not for long"** Coach said amiably. He knew the scouts had talked to Bolton and Danforth tonight, he had two spots on the team they'd be perfect for. Bolton would get a starting position of course and Danforth too if he could continue to show that kind of teamwork in training.

" **Charlie Danforth will suit up next season"** Jack teased introducing his friend and neighbour.

" **Front row seat will be fine"** Charlie said shaking the coach's hand.

" **That teamwork I saw tonight, that assist where you gave up the final shot, that's the kind of players I'm looking for. We're going to see you in Redhawk uniforms?"** Coach said to Troy and Chad.

" **Done deal"** Troy said looking pleased.

" **Amen to that"** Chad agreed.

Lucille and Charlene rolled their eyes at the conversation. Lucille looked at Jack meaningfully, he'd promised not to monopolise Troy tonight and to let him celebrate with his friends instead of helping to host the party.

"Go have some fun" Jack said slapping Troy on the shoulder.

"OK" Troy said resuming his search for Gabriella.

Troy disappeared and Chad moved towards the food. She watched as Troy was accosted by one of the new members of the team. He looked uncomfortable but sent the boy running off before anyone could intervene. The next time she saw him he was in the food line, laughing with Gabriella. She relaxed and returned to her conversations with the other mothers.

-o0o-

" **Troy? You have guests. Don't make me come up there and get you again"** Lucille called up from the base of the tree where she'd seen her son and his girlfriend disappear about ten minutes earlier.

" **Hi, Gabriella"** she added letting him know that she knew they were up there together.

" **We'll be right down, Mom"** Troy called back.

Lucille overheard him say to Gabriella, **"She really will come up here if we don't go down".** She grinned, she wouldn't really climb up there in this skirt in front of all these people but it didn't hurt that Troy thought she would. She supposed she should be grateful that they'd chosen the treehouse when they snuck off to be alone, it didn't really provide them the privacy to get up to much more than a few kisses. It was rude though for Troy to leave a party at his own house though. She watched from a distance as Troy helped Gabriella down and they started socialising with their friends before turning back to check on the drinks and snacks. Seeing she could relax for a moment she caught Charlene Danforth's eye and headed over to catch up.

"Great Party as always Lucille" Charlene complimented.

"Thanks, it's easy when the team wins" Lucille said.

"It's going to be strange doing this next year without Troy and Chad" Charlene commented.

A shiver went up Lucille's spine. "They'll only be at U of A. I'm sure that Troy at least will come back for the final game of the season" she protested.

"Remember when they were little and we tried to arrange for Troy to sleep over with Chad and they'd both sneak out to come to the party" Charlene said laughing.

Lucille laughed too. "They were always trying to hang out with the team" she reminisced looking around. "This was their dream."

"Yeah it was" Charlene agreed smiling. "Now it's the Redhawks and U of A. It looks like that dream will come true too."

Lucille smiled but she was beginning to doubt whether that was actually Troy's dream these days, or if it was Jack's dream for him that Troy was just going along with because he hadn't found his own dream yet.

-o0o-

" **I thought I heard you. I was just making some snacks inside. Are you guys hungry?"** Maria asked coming out the back door. She stopped awkwardly. " **I interrupted something, didn't I?"**

" **Just talking, Mom"** Gabriella replied trying to sound casual.

" **Homework"** Troy added.

" **OK"** Maria replied not believing them, they'd looked like they were too serious to have been about homework and she didn't think they were in any of the same classes this semester. She retreated to the kitchen and carefully eased the window open a little so she could hear them hoping everything was okay. She was disappointed that while Troy's comment proved they hadn't been honest about whatever they were talking about they didn't resume their conversation.

-o0o-

"Mom! Mom! Guess what?" Kelsi came running into the house and hugged her mother enthusiastically.

Caroline Neilson laughed. "Well it must be something pretty impressive. Did the person you like ask you out?" Caroline was always really careful to refer to people in gender neutral terms as a result of her work, she was fairly sure that if her daughter was crushing on anybody it would be a boy. In fact, she worried a little that it might be her best friend's boyfriend Troy, not that Kelsi would ever let on to her friend or Troy if that was the case. Caroline just didn't want her miserable over an unrequited crush, anyone seeing the couple together could see that Troy Bolton was head over heels for his girlfriend Gabriella.

"Juilliard's coming here to our show!" Kelsi squealed.

"The Juilliard School are coming to East High?" Caroline asked astonished.

"Yes they're sending representatives to see our show because me, Ryan, Troy and Sharpay all applied. This will be my audition. Ms Darbus says they're going to offer one of us a scholarship!" Kelsi exclaimed excitedly.

"So we don't need to go to New York for auditions?" Caroline asked, secretly a little disappointed though heaven knows they could use the money they would've had to spend for Kelsi's college expenses next year.

"No I'm sorry Mom. But I have at least a one in four chance of getting in!" Kelsi apologised, she'd been looking forward to a couple of days in New York with her mother too. "If I get in you can come and visit me next year."

Caroline smiled at her daughter's excitement, though she knew there would be no spare money for visiting New York if Kelsi got into Juilliard without a scholarship. "And you would be a real New Yorker and able to show me all the best places" she replied.

-o0o-

"Troy invited me to Prom today" Gabriella told her mother excitedly when she walked through the door at the end of the day.

"That calls for some celebration. Let's go out for dinner" Maria said cheerfully pulling out the left overs they would've had from the fridge and putting them into the freezer.

Gabriella grinned. "Can we go to O'Rourke's?"

"Of course, go make us a booking while I get changed" Maria replied.

"I'm so excited, he said he'd never been to a school dance before. I can't believe I'm going to prom" Gabriella whirled around.

"You'll need a prom dress and shoes. Do you want me to take you shopping or have you made plans to go with your friends?" Maria said totally unsurprised that Troy had invited her daughter.

"Um.. I don't know. None of them have been invited yet" Gabriella said uncertainly.

"Well let's plan on going on Saturday then and if Kelsi or Taylor get an invitation before then they're welcome to join us. Or I could drop the three of you off to shop on your own if you'd prefer" Maria decided.

"I'd like my friends to come, they'd know the right sort of dress to buy" Gabriella said. "I'd like you to come too though" she added after she saw her mother's face fall.

"Of course you want your friends there, though I'm sure the shop managers would also steer you in the right direction" Maria reassured her daughter. "From what I've seen there's quite a variety of dresses at most Proms these days so you can pretty much have any style of dress you want."

"I want something girly and floaty and pretty" Gabriella said.

"Well don't set your heart too much on a particular look or it might be too hard to find" Maria said practically.

-o0o-

Maria and Vivienne McKessie watched their daughters look through the prom dresses available sometimes holding one out to each other or holding one up against them soliciting their friend's opinion. Kelsi was also helping them look though not planning on going to the prom herself she didn't want to miss out on the excitement of shopping. Gabriella and Taylor both encouraged her to try several dresses on herself too, using their phones to snap photos of the best ones.

The two mothers were pretty much being ignored.

"I don't know why I was so keen to come shopping" Maria commented.

"They certainly don't seem to need us anymore do they" Vivienne replied. "It's hard to believe that it's only another couple of months before they go off to college."

"It's all she's been working towards for years and now she's got in I have to admit I don't know how I'm going to bring myself to let her go" Maria admitted.

"Yes Taylor's got into Yale. I'm so proud of her but a small part of me can't help but wish she was going to U of A with her sister and could come home every other weekend like Chantelle did in her first semester" Vivienne agreed quietly.

"I know how you feel" Maria agreed, "but at least you'll have Chantelle and your husband with you. And all your friends. I'm going to hate moving on without her when they transfer me again. Part of me wants to stay in Albuquerque just because she will have friends she wants to come home and visit here."

-o0o-

A/N: Thank you to Guest, pumpkinking5, simone, auslly love 1000, sidneymarsh, PurpleWitch25565, ZoeSummerStar, HPmarauder18, .391, olsenfamilyxx, princessofspark, Pounou9, YinYang Eagle, hptwilightfive-0girl, holymanga, smiile, CatMikaelson, YaoiLover92, Jhutch112, vreadermd, Janeite76, lealover1, amethyst0216 and AussieSam2005 for your support.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOT give permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.

-o0o-

Maria walked into the kitchen and saw Gabriella standing in the middle of the room staring at a letter. She was surprised her daughter was even home after she hadn't responded to her greeting as she walked in.

"What's that you've got there? Is it another college acceptance?" Maria asked wondering what had her daughter looking so torn. Was she having second thoughts about going to Stanford.

Gabriella handed the letter to her mother without saying anything.

"What's this?" Maria asked taking it out and reading it. "Oh my goodness that's great Gabriella!"

"I don't know if I want to go" Gabriella admitted softly. "I'd miss the prom and what about my role on the show. I can't let T…everyone down like that."

"It's just a high school show. The whole point of extracurricular activities like that is to obtain extra credit so you'll be considered for opportunities like this one. You owe it to yourself to attend this honours program and make the most of the new opportunities it gives you" Maria said firmly. "There are always people who could take your place in the show. And if it means that much to you then you can fly back to Albuquerque for Prom."

"I can?" Gabriella blurted surprised. "Thanks Mom."

"Is this what you were discussing with Taylor?" Maria asked referring to the multitude of phone calls her daughter had received from the other girl that afternoon.

"She's really excited that I got into the freshman honours program and if it was her then she'd already be packed and waiting to leave. I just don't feel ready to leave East High" Gabriella said.

"Nobody is ever truly ready to leave for college" Maria reassured her.

"What if I defer going to Stanford and take some classes locally next year" Gabriella suggested.

"No Gabriella you need to embrace your future. Your friends will all move on after Graduation and you would feel like you're being left behind in limbo. No longer in high school but not yet where you should be" Maria replied. "You'd miss out on a lot of social opportunities at Stanford if you don't do your freshman year there too."

"I know Mom" Gabriella said resignedly. "I just don't know how I'm going to face saying goodbye."

Maria sighed. "Gabriella, high school ends. It ends for everyone. You knew we were only here for eighteen months. Even if I wanted to stay, I agreed that I could be transferred when you finished high school."

"But you haven't been yet. You could ask to stay" Gabriella said desperately.

"Gabriella you're going to be at Stanford. I have nothing to stay here for" Maria said gently.

-o0o-

Lucille was surprised that nobody else seemed to notice how awkward Troy looked while the others talked about he and Chad playing for the Redhawks next season. Of course they may have just thought it was just wearing that ridiculous hat. Lucille knew he wouldn't normally mind the hat. He was having second thoughts about going to U of A and he didn't know how to tell his father or his best friend who were both so excited about the idea. She'd seen several fat envelopes addressed to Troy from colleges all over the country and she'd noticed that any from colleges further west of Albuquerque had quickly appeared in the rubbish no matter how attractive the offer was but he'd also received some from colleges in California which hadn't reappeared. She was sure they were still in his room and was tempted to search for them and see what they offered even though she was sure Troy would be horrified at the breach of his privacy. On second thoughts she didn't want to look through his drawers because she was worried about what else she would find.

-o0o-

 **"WHAT?!"** Maria heard either Taylor or Gabriella shriek and got up to see what was going on.

 **"Stay in Albuquerque that makes no sense"** Taylor said. Maria relaxed a little, clearly the girls were in no danger but why on earth was Taylor asking Gabriella about staying in Albuquerque, Gabriella was going to Stanford next week. Maybe she was having second thoughts about the early orientation though Maria hoped she'd go. It was an incredible opportunity and it would help Gabriella settle in more quickly next year.

 **"And why do I always have to make sense?"** Maria smiled in spite of herself at the frustration in Gabriella's voice. **"I'll still go to Stanford just maybe in a year. You know I can take classes at U of A next fall or something."**

 **"Did you say U of A?"** Taylor echoed Maria's thoughts exactly. Throwing away Stanford to go to U of A would make getting into a good medical school incredibly difficult. Maria was sure that if she allowed Gabriella to stay at U of A they would both come to regret it.

" **Ah ha It's obvious that you're not thinking clearly because you're thinking about Troy. I mean I get it that he's your first crush but…"** Maria cursed to herself as she realised Taylor was right. Gabriella was thinking about giving up the future she'd worked so hard for, for the boy. Maria quite liked Troy though it had taken time to get over him hurting her daughter over the summer but she had no idea the two of them were that serious about each other.

 **"I'm sorry, I meant relationship. But there will be other guys, I promise** " Taylor now sounded apologetic but clearly still disapproved of this decision to put off going to Stanford.

Maria entered the bedroom and Taylor seeing the look on her face realised that Gabriella's Mom had overheard at least the end of their conversation. **"Um, I ah, I ah, I, I'm late for dinner"** she said escaping quickly with an apologetic glance in Gabriella's direction.

Maria didn't know quite what to say. She was worried if she voiced her disapproval of going to U of A too strongly Gabriella would just dig her heels in and insist.

"I'm being transferred" she said instead. "I start my new position in Sacramento at the start of the month so I have two weeks to pack up and move everything. The good news is that I'll be working less than two hours from Stanford and I thought I'd get a place about half way. You can still live on campus if you want but it will give you a place to get away from college life if you need a break"

"You said that we were here until I graduated" Gabriella protested.

"You leave for Stanford next week. They've kept their word, but really I could better serve the company elsewhere" Maria reminded her daughter gently. This is a great opportunity for me and you know that if I turn it down so we can stay here for the rest of the school year they might transfer me somewhere on the west coast at the start of the summer anyway."

Gabriella sighed, and unwillingly agreed that her mother was right it would be stupid to turn this down.

Maria knew that if her daughter was set on going to Stanford she would've been delighted her mother was going to be so close for the first six months or more.

" **I guess my heart doesn't know it's in high school"** Gabriella said sighing. Maria's heart clenched a little at that. She wanted to reassure her daughter that there would be other boyfriend's other opportunities for love and that one day she would look back on her relationship with Troy and laugh at how seriously they had thought it. But Gabriella wasn't ready to hear those reassurances, they would only hurt her daughter and drive a wedge between the two of them.

-o0o-

"You'll soon settle in at Stanford. There'll be lost of students there that are bright, you will be able to make friends with similar ambitions and interests to you" Maria said after a couple of hours of silence on their way out of Albuquerque. She was uncomfortably aware that a lot of her words sounded remarkably similar to the pep talk she'd given Gabriella every time they moved town and that until East High she'd been wrong every time. Sure Gabriella had made acquaintances but these surface friendships didn't ease her daughter's sense of isolation.

"It won't be like high school. The whole freshman year will be in the same boat and looking to make new friends" Maria said. "Doing the honours program will help enormously, you'll already have friends there when you start next year."

"I know Mom" Gabriella replied. It was ironic, this chance to be just one of hundreds of new students starting at the same time was something she'd waited for half her life and now she just couldn't care less.

She didn't address the issue of Troy knowing that it was too soon for Gabriella to even think of another boy. "Does Stanford have a dramatic society?" she asked.

"They have a department of Theatre and performance studies" Gabriella replied listlessly.

"You could do a drama class. It would meet your humanities requirements and acting a part would be a good skill to have"

"Concealing my emotions so I can deal effectively with my patients would be useful" Gabriella conceded. "But I don't know if I could bring myself to act in a performance without Troy or to sing songs not written for me by Kelsi."

"Well it would be good for you to try, Troy and Kelsi didn't give you the skills to perform, just the incentive and support, and if you don't enjoy it, you'll have lots of other clubs and activities to choose from in college" Maria replied positively.

-o0o-

Lucille could still hear Jack out on the court out back taking his stress out on the basketball when Troy arrived home. He'd been out there a couple of hours so she hoped he'd be calm enough by now to have a rational conversation with their son. Gabriella had been gone for about a week and the strain was starting to show on Troy, though he was making an effort to try to keep up with his friends and schoolwork and not fall into a depression, Lucille knew he was counting the hours until Gabriella came back.

She quietly opened the window to hear their conversation, ready to call out and interrupt if she thought it would help.

" **Hear from Gabriella?"** Jack asked trying to sound casual.

" **Yeah"** Troy replied barely refraining from adding a 'Duh' and instead made the effort to continue the conversation. **"She's knee-deep in geniuses out there. Believe it or not, she says the food's better at East High."**

" **Yeah. Oh, yeah. She still coming down for prom?"** Jack asked.

" **Yeah"** Troy answered again smiling in anticipation of seeing his girlfriend. He couldn't believe just how much it hurt waking up each morning and knowing he wasn't going to see her.

" **How's that big show going?"** Jack asked.

" **You don't want to know"** Troy replied sighing, wondering why his father was suddenly so interested. The rehearsals were going badly, it seemed that Sharpay was the only one not missing Gabriella and the way the blonde was aggressively pushing herself into Gabriella's role only made everyone miss Gabriella more.

" **When were you going to tell me about this?"** Jack asked pulling out the college prospectus that Ms Darbus had given him the day she told him about the potential scholarship

" **Juilliard. There's nothing to tell"** Troy replied. Sure he was flattered to think he could possibly get into such a prestigious stage school but he was fairly sure that he wasn't interested in actually going there. It had made him think about majoring in theatre at whatever college he went to though.

" **Maybe there is"** Jack said accusingly. **"I heard you're talking to other schools. I mean, is this serious?"**

" **U of A isn't the only school that's talked to me. You know that"** Troy said frustrated that his Dad didn't see any other path for him but the one Jack had chosen for him before he was even old enough to know what college was. Lucille had been surprised it had taken Jack so long to realise how unenthusiastic Troy had been about U of A for the last few months.

" **But it's the only school we talked about. Chad would be disappointed if you changed your mind"** Maria rolled her eyes listening to Jack trying to deflect his feelings.

" **No, Chad would get over it. Would you?"** Troy asked pointedly.

" **We've been going to U of A games since you were a little kid. You talked about wearing a Redhawks uniform"** Jack protested.

" **But I'm not a little kid anymore. You raised me to make my own choices and I need to make them. Not you or Chad or anybody else. Me"** Troy yelled. He didn't know which way he wanted to choose but he knew that he needed to make a decision soon. He also knew that buckling under the pressure and choosing what his Dad wanted him to choose may not be the right decision for him and he'd end up resenting his father if he did that, just as he knew Gabriella would have ended up resenting him if he'd let her stay in Albuquerque instead of following her dreams. Now he just had to work out what following his dreams meant for him. He knew he should stay and talk to his father, tell him how confused he was about this all. But he also knew his Dad would try and talk him into going to U of A like he had. Troy turned and walked back towards his truck.

" **Hey"** Jack yelled. **"Troy, come on. Troy!"**

Lucille came out in her dressing gown. "What happened Jack? Were you and Troy fighting?"

Jack sighed. "I asked him about this and he got all defensive and took off" he said waving the Juilliard prospectus at her.

"What did Troy say exactly?" Lucille pushed.

"Something about not being a kid anymore and needing to make his own decisions" Jack admitted. "Why didn't he come to us and talk about it if he was having second thoughts about going to U of A?"

"Because he already knew what you'd say" Lucille said bluntly.

"Troy's spoken to you about this?" Jack accused.

"No he hasn't but I could see how awkward he felt the night the Danforths came to dinner, and how much he's been missing Gabriella in the last two weeks. He was being honest when he told you there was nothing to tell you about the Juilliard audition. Juilliard's in New York and he never thought about applying for it and I doubt he'll accept even if he does win the scholarship, but it wouldn't surprise me if he chooses to attend a college near Stanford and decides to major in drama or theatre."

"But he's got a full ride scholarship offer from U of A" Jack protested.

"And I'm sure he's taking that into consideration. But there were a lot of scouts I didn't recognise at the last couple of games of the season and some of them might have been there because Troy applied to their schools" Lucille replied. "If he's good enough for a full ride scholarship he might be good enough to get an offer from one of them as well."

"You're too optimistic. You know how hard he worked last summer to get on the radar for a scholarship to U of A" Jack retorted.

"I also know that U of A was only one of more than half a dozen scouts clamouring for his attention at the end of the championship game" Lucille said firmly. "I want him to be able to go to college without ending up with a huge student loan to pay off too. But I also want him to be happy doing what he loves. He's had a lot of offers and I noticed that he throws out the ones from east coast schools straight away but I'm pretty sure I saw some California postmarks among the ones he's kept. And you Jack Bolton will support him. Whatever decision he makes."

"There's no way we could afford an out of state college without a very generous scholarship" Jack protested.

"Yes, and I'm sure Troy knows that" Lucille replied. "He's been aware of our financial situation since the end of junior year. That's what caused all the problems for him over the summer thinking he needed to do everything he could to make Brock Evans want to give him a scholarship. But he realised then that some things are more important. You need to trust your son to know what's best for him. I know you've been dreaming of going to watch him play for the Redhawks since he was old enough to hold a basketball but isn't his happiness more important?"

Jack shrank back and dropped the argument, he didn't want to end up sleeping on the couch.

A/N: Thank you to Simone (Guest), pumpkinking5, Guest and latinagirl-reader2010 for your support.


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

Disclaimer: I do not own High School Musical or any of its characters. I do however own this story, I wrote it and I do NOT give permission for anyone to post it anywhere else. If you want to share it post a link.

-o0o-

" **Hey, Mama!"** Troy said coming into the kitchen where she was working and kissing her cheek.

" **Hi"** Lucille responded happy to see her boy smiling for a change.

" **Wow!"** Lucille exclaimed almost in tears with pride as Troy held the tux he'd just picked up for Prom up in front. Her baby boy had grown up too fast.

 **Gorgeous!"** Lucille gushed proudly, hugging him.

" **I'd like to take credit, but Gabriella picked it out** " Troy said smiling.

" **I ordered that corsage you showed me. It's going to be perfect"** Lucille told him rubbing his cheek

" **Thanks, Mom"** Troy said kissing her cheek. She loved how affectionate he was when he was happy.

" **You did good"** Lucille said to Chad pinching his cheek.

" **Thank you"** Chad grinned his mouth full of the ingredients Lucille had been preparing for dinner.

" **It's Gabriella** " Troy told his mother quite unnecessarily. Lucille had known who it was the moment Troy's face lit up at seeing the caller's name.

" **Hey! I just showed my mom the tux"** Troy told Gabriella happily.

Lucille watched worried as Troy's face fell and he hurried out of the room. She could no longer hear what he was saying but his voice sounded anxious. She looks at Chad and he offered to go see what's up.

"Wait a moment for them to finish their conversation. It might have just been a small thing. You know how much he worries about her" Lucille said holding him back.

"Ya got that right" Chad replied helping himself to juice from the fridge. Lucille smiled affectionately at the boy who was almost her second son for the last fourteen years.

Lucille heard the sound of something being thrown and gave Chad a significant look. He hurried into Troy's room and shut the door. Lucille resisted the urge to eavesdrop and kept working trying to keep calm until she found out what was going on. 'It still might be nothing serious' she told herself anxiously.

"Are you staying for dinner?" Lucille asked as she saw Chad coming back out of Troy's room.

"No! I don't think Troy's going to want any dinner" Chad replied. "Gabriella told him she's never coming back."

Lucille closed her eyes in fear. Her son had tied his happiness up so tightly with this girl that he was miserable with her being away for a few weeks. She was afraid of how he would react to the news she wasn't coming back to him. "Did he say anything else?" she asked.

"I dunno! He didn't tell me" Chad replied. "I'll see ya around Mrs B."

"See you Chad" Lucille answered automatically.

She went into Troy's room after knocking and getting no answer and found him lying on the bed staring at the ceiling. She sat down beside him.

"Dinner's almost ready" she said, unsure of what else to say. It would be idiotic to ask if he were okay when she could so clearly see that he wasn't and she didn't want to pry.

"I don't think I can eat anything" Troy said quietly.

"Do you feel like talking about it?" Lucille asked gently.

"No" Troy replied.

Lucille waited.

"She said she doesn't want to come back and then leave again. That she can't do it" Troy said miserably.

Lucille understood but she didn't know how to convey that understanding to her heartbroken son. "She thinks making a clean break will hurt less" she said gently.

"But I don't want to say goodbye at all. I want us to be together forever Mom" Troy said blinking tears away.

"I know dear but Gabriella has a lot more experience at leaving than you have and I expect she's probably heard that before" Lucille suggested.

"She doesn't believe I mean it? You don't believe I mean it?" Troy asked affronted.

"I know you mean it and I think Gabriella does too" Lucille tried to calm him down, "I just don't know how well you'll manage to keep finding time once you start college and basketball and have so many new commitments. Gabriella's already at Stanford and you know how busy she is with classes and homework. Maybe she's afraid she's not going to be able to maintain a long-term relationship and figures it's going to hurt you both less in the long run not to try."

"You think she's just afraid" Troy said sadly.

'I think she might be being more realistic than you' Lucille thought but didn't say. "I have to go rescue dinner" she said instead, making her escape before she let slip the fact she didn't think Troy could fix this and believed that Troy may never see Gabriella again.

-o0o-

"So are you still going to go to Prom with Chad?" Lucille asked worrying whether this was a good idea. All of his friends already had dates to Prom and while she knew they would try to make Troy feel included they also wanted the night to be special for them and their dates. And prom was such a romantic night she was worried it would just depress him to see everyone else with their dates while he was alone.

"No I'm going to Prom with Gabriella. If she won't come back to East High for Prom then I'm going to Stanford to spend Prom with her there" Troy said determinedly.

"Troy are you sure that's a good idea? What did she tell you about not being able to come home? It wasn't just because she had too much work was it?" Lucille guessed.

"She said she couldn't say goodbye again" Troy said hurt. "I need to show her that she doesn't need to say goodbye, that I can be there when she needs me."

Lucille sighed but she could see that Troy's mind was made up. He would go no matter what she tried to say or do to dissuade him. "Will your truck even get you all the way to California?" she asked dubiously.

"It should, it's been running really well lately" Troy said defensively.

Lucille sighed again and dug her credit card out of her bag. "If your truck breaks down I want to be sure you can afford to catch the bus and aren't out there trying to hitchhike in the middle of the night" she said. "It's for emergencies only and spend sparingly because it will come out of your college fund."

"Thanks Mama" Troy said kissing her cheek.

"Dinner will be ready in twenty minutes. Don't even think you're leaving before eating it" Lucille said firmly. "I'll pack up some food for you to eat on the road and I expect you to tell your father where you're going, and to call me every couple of hours until you stop for the night."

-o0o-

Jack had tried to get Troy to change his mind, and got angry when he failed. Lucille stepped in and sent Troy upstairs to pack before he could alienate Troy and he turned on her once Troy was out of earshot. "How can you be supporting this ridiculous trip? Can't you see he's only making it harder for both of them?"

Lucille sighed. "I know but he isn't going to change his mind about this. He's going to go even if he has to sneak out after we go to sleep tonight. Would you rather he goes with our support, with snacks to help him stay awake and calls us every couple of hours, or sneaks off and refuses to answer our calls and we won't know what's going on with him until he comes back? If you're right and seeing Gabriella hurts him further don't you want him to feel like he can turn to us for support?" she demanded.

Jack collapsed on the couch and ran his hands through his hair. "You're right" he admitted in a defeated tone.

Lucille watched his truck drive off with tears in her eyes. She prayed that his truck would make the trip and he would arrive back safely. Most of all she prayed that Gabriella would be happy to see him. Lucille knew that this wasn't the reaction Gabriella had expected when she rang and told Troy she wasn't coming back for Prom or Graduation and she hoped and prayed that the girl hadn't rung to cancel coming to prom because she'd realised that her feelings for Troy were superficial, or worse she'd met someone else. She attempted to settle into the paperwork she'd brought home but couldn't concentrate, tried to have a bath but couldn't relax and ended up downstairs tidying the linen closet, the repetitive movements of refolding everything finally starting to calm her jitters.

"Lucille, honey. What's the matter? Troy rang less than twenty minutes ago, he's feeling fine and his truck's running well. He's fine" Jack said wrapping his arms around her from behind.

"I'm worried about what's going to happen when he gets there. What if Gabriella isn't happy to see him?" Lucille asked anxiously.

"Why wouldn't she be?" Jack asked confused.

"Why didn't she want to come home for prom?" Lucille asked.

"She said she couldn't face saying goodbye to everyone again?" Jack said questioningly.

"What if she meant she didn't want to say goodbye to Troy again? What if him going to see her hurts her and she lashes out? What if she was lying and just didn't want to come? What if she's met someone else? What if she hurts our boy?"

"Luce, you're borrowing trouble" Jack protested. "There's no reason to expect Gabriella won't be thrilled to see Troy. If I were you I'd worry about them doing something insane like driving home through Las Vegas and getting hitched."

Unsurprisingly, the joke fell flat and Lucille hit him with the quilt cover she'd just finished folding. Jack was tempted to grab something and hit gently back, hoping a tussle would distract her from her worries but the phone rang.

"Hello Troy" Lucille picked it up anxiously and Jack leaned in so he could hear Troy's half of the conversation as well.

"Hey Mama, just checking in, everything's fine, I've found a good place to stop and get some sleep" Troy said.

"Goodnight Troy, I love you. Lock the doors and stay safe" Lucille said.

"I will Mama, I love you" Troy replied. "Tell Dad I'm fine."

"Night Troy" Jack said.

"Night Dad. Love you" Troy said disconnecting just as his father said "Love you too."

"Come to be Luce, Troy's going to sleep so he won't call again tonight, staying up all night worrying isn't going to achieve anything" Jack encouraged leading her up the stairs.

-o0o-

Maria took a couple of hours off the afternoon of the East High prom wanting to be home to support her daughter. She'd been worried about how Gabriella would cope with this day since she decided not to go home for prom. Maria was proud of her daughter for having the courage to tell Troy she didn't want to come home for prom and graduation. She actually agreed with her that it would be better to make a clean break. High school romances no matter how serious or intense rarely survived the first semester of college and Gabriella would find it easier to settle in and make friends if she wasn't spending half her free time on skype with Troy trying to keep a failing romance alive. Still she knew it had been extremely difficult for her daughter to do and that if left alone she'd spend the night second guessing herself and probably talk herself into going back to Albuquerque for the graduation ceremony.

She had just put a tray of brownies in the oven when she heard the front door open.

"Hi Mom, you're home early" Gabriella called out cheerfully.

"Hi Mija, I'm in the kitchen" Maria called back, relieved at the tone of voice until they came through into the kitchen and she saw Troy with her.

"Hello Troy, what are you doing here?" Maria asked.

"I decided I wanted to see Gabriella more than anything. Tonight is our prom night, it's supposed to be special and there's nowhere else I'd rather be than here with Gabriella tonight" Troy replied.

Gabriella smiled at him.

Maria sighed, clearly Gabriella was happy to see him. Her determination to cut all ties and move forward seemed to have been forgotten the moment she first laid eyes on Troy.

"So do you have plans to take Gabriella out somewhere tonight?" she asked.

"I'd like to take her somewhere we can dance" Troy replied. "Do you know anywhere appropriate?"

"I can't say I do" Maria replied, "Other than private functions the only places to dance are the dance clubs. There might be one that caters for underaged students" she added dubiously.

"We could take a picnic somewhere and dance on the beach" Gabriella suggested.

"I don't think Troy's dressed for the beach, is that a hired tuxedo Troy?" Maria asked.

"It is but I have normal clothes in my truck if my lady would like to go to the beach then we shall" Tory said smiling at Gabriella.

Make sure you wear your swim suit and take a dry change of clothes if you do" Maria said. She didn't want them to decide to do anything stupid. She began searching the cupboards for food she could give them for a picnic on the beach, at least she hoped they planned to go to the beach.  
"Troy where are you staying?" she asked suspiciously.

"In my truck, same as last night" Troy replied.

"We have a guest room" Gabriella offered.

"Gabriella, I'm not sure I'm comfortable having Troy stay the night" Maria hissed.

"That's okay Ms Montez. I'm comfortable sleeping in my truck" Troy replied.

"Don't be silly Troy, you need a good night sleep before you try to drive 1,000 miles home tomorrow" Gabriella said glaring at her mother.

"Very well, if you and Troy both promise to spend the night in your own rooms then Troy is welcome to stay the night" Maria capitulated.

"Thanks Mom" Gabriella said grinning. "I promise."

"I promise too" Troy said earnestly.

"I'm going to get changed" Gabriella said heading to her room.

"Why'd you come Troy?" Maria asked quietly, once Gabriella had closed her door.

"I needed to, I needed to show Gabriella that I'm willing to make the effort to keep in contact. That I'll always be there for her" Troy replied.

"Come September you'll be at U of A, meeting new people, making new friends, you'll be busy with classes and basketball training. Busier than you can imagine at the moment. I like you Troy, you've been good for Gabriella but spending every spare minute on Skype or waiting for you to call her will not be good for her, or you. You need to let her go" Maria said.

"I got offers for UC Berkeley, Loyola Marymount University and California State University Fresno" Troy replied.

"Not Stanford" Maria pointed out.

"Well no but I won't be 1,053 miles away" Troy replied.

"Which one have you chosen?" Maria asked.

"Berkeley, I haven't told Gabriella or my Mom and Dad yet so please don't say anything. Gabriella is the best thing that ever happened to me Ms Montez and if I ever think Gabriella will be better off without me then I'll tell her that and get out of her life but I think we both deserve to give our relationship a chance" Troy said firmly.

Maria's eyes softened, she couldn't help believing the determination in Troy's speech. She didn't know if he could make his relationship with Gabriella work long term but she knew he was determined to try and she'd seen a determined Troy achieve the seemingly impossible before. Maybe he was right that they deserved a chance.

Gabriella came back in the dress she'd brought for prom.

"That's a bit fancy for the beach" Maria protested, meaning it's too expensive to destroy on a picnic.

Troy turned around. "You look amazing" he breathed.

Gabriella smiled.

"Gabriella your dress will be ruined" Maria warned.

"Maybe it isn't the best choice for the beach but this is our prom Mom" Gabriella replied.

"Do you have a picnic blanket we could use to protect her dress? We could go to the park" Troy suggested.

Maria fetched the blanket, and Troy laid it across the picnic basket. "Thanks Ms Montez" he said.

"Bye Mom" Gabriella said.

"Bye Gabriella, be home by one am" Maria said. She stood at the window and watched them drive off.

-o0o-

She sat in the dark in her room looking out the window when Troy's truck pulled up outside at ten to one. She watched as Gabriella climbed out of the truck wearing Troy's basketball shorts and letterman jacket. Her dress was peeking out the top of the picnic basket with Troy's suit. Troy was wearing basketball singlet and shorts. They were laughing as they walked hand in hand up to the door and Gabriella let them in.

"Goodnight Troy" Gabriella said quietly.

"Night Gabriella I love you" Troy said.

"I love you Troy. Thanks for not giving up on me" Gabriella said kissing him. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Are you sure?" Troy asked.

Maria frowned 'sure about what?'

"Yes I'm sure. Mom gets up at six thirty, I'll tell her and then we can go" Gabriella said. "I better let you get some sleep."

Maria waited until Troy and Gabriella went to their rooms and then went and knocked on Gabriella's door.

"Come in Mom" Gabriella called.

"How did you know I wasn't Troy?" Maria asked.

"He promised to stay in his room" Gabriella replied as if there was no other possibility.

"You're wearing his clothes" Maria commented.

"I got changed before we went to the beach" Gabriella said casually.

"What did you need to tell me tomorrow morning?" Maria asked.

"I'm going back to Albuquerque with Troy for graduation" Gabriella said.

Maria sighed "I'm not going to be able to change your mind, am I?"

"No Mom" Gabriella said firmly.

"We could fly back for graduation, I'll book the tickets in the morning" Maria offered.

"I'd love you to come to my graduation but I need to drive back with Troy and help keep him awake" Gabriella said. "I'll ring Taylor and Kelsi and ask if I can stay with one of them."

"I'll ring you when I know what time I'll arrive. I want you to text me every hour while you're on the road and let me know where you are and that you're okay" Maria said.

"Okay Mom I will" Gabriella promised hugging her mother.

"Try to get some sleep" Maria said kissing Gabriella's cheek. "Goodnight."

"Night Mom."

-o0o-

" **Hey, Mommy and Daddy, how was Africa? No, I mean India"** Sharpay corrected herself. Really she didn't really care where her father's business had taken them so long as they brought her back something good. She continued dreaming of receiving the Juilliard scholarship while her parents answered.

"It was very successful" Brock replied.

"Hot and dry, I need an extensive facial. Join me tomorrow?" Darby offered.

" **Oh, fabulous"** she replied automatically before reminding them. **"The show is starting soon."**

"Don't worry Princess, we're here" Brock replied.

" **You're in the lobby?"** Sharpay asked.

"Of course darling. We're looking forward to seeing the show" Darby replied.

" **OK. Toodles. And I love the roses!"** Sharpay cooed.

-o0o-

" **Even when we're miles apart"** Sharpay sang

Lucille smiled, this was the duet that Troy had been complaining about having to sing with the vain manipulative blonde, any minute now her son would be on stage and she'd see whether he was really okay. He'd sounded upbeat on the phone when he'd called to check in during the drive home but she was anxious to see him in person.

" **Even if we're miles apart"** Sharpay sang again looking around a little anxiously.

" **Even if we're miles and miles and miles apart"** she almost yelled more than sang hoping Troy would finally hear his cue.

Lucille started to panic, she'd read statistics about people having fatal accidents in the last few miles of a long journey, relaxing too soon as they were nearly home. 'Where was Troy?'

A moment later a young boy, ridiculously dressed appeared on stage and started singing Troy's role. Lucille pulled out her phone, ignoring how bad manners it was and tried to ring her son.

"Hey Mama we just pulled up at the back of the school now" he said as he and Gabriella ran towards the auditorium.

"Oh thank heavens" Lucille whispered. "I'll see you soon."

"He's here" she whispered to Jack, seeing him visibly relax at the news and then start to laugh at the performance on the stage.

-o0o-

Alonzo and Benedetta Zara couldn't help but laugh as their son arrived on stage. They hadn't known he was going to perform tonight and had only come because her Giacomo had begged them. She knew he had been worried about being the understudy having no desire to perform. He'd only got involved in the theatre production because his idol Troy Bolton was the lead. They watched chuckling as he over acted his way through the song, hiding his nervousness in tomfoolery and clearly annoying the girl in the green dress. They hoped it wasn't one of the girls he told them about though it probably was. He had a bit of a crush on a girl named Tiara and more recently a girl called Sharpay but from what he'd said about them as he rambled about his days both girls sounded rather unfriendly. Still neither crush sounded serious, if anything his bro crush on the basketball captain left him too occupied for romantic thoughts. The girl ran off and Jimmie stayed on stage showing off.

Benedetta hoped that they wouldn't have to have someone come on stage and drag Giacomo off, surely they could just bring the curtains down or something.

-o0o-

Darby frowned in confusion when a bling girl appeared on the stage on what looked like Sharpay's blue costume. She and Brock checked the program and found an added slip of paper announcing that Sharpay Evans had taken the lead female role because the original lead Gabriella Montez was unavailable and that a Tiara Gold was playing the role originally allocated to Sharpay Evans.

Sharpay had made it sound like she was playing both roles. Darby had to admit that the girl was doing well enough though she was sure Sharpay would have sung the song better.

Brock on the other hand appreciated that the sexy performer was not his daughter. He knew she was growing up but he wasn't prepared for his little girl to actively flirt with so many drooling boys. Her flirtation with Troy over the summer was bad enough and he'd at least had the comfort of knowing Troy was well aware his future depended on him not going too far and losing Sharpay's father's support. Not to mention he was well aware Troy wasn't actually romantically attracted to his little girl. He was just smiling about the change in casting when Sharpay was lowered onto the stage.

Brock laughed along with the audience at the almost cat fight between the girls as they competed for the dominant role. He wondered if it had been rehearsed like that or if Sharpay had thrown a wobbly about losing the song and decided to try to upstage her understudy. He was glad to see Sharpay ignore the boys on the stage as she focussed on the other girl.

Darby beamed proudly. She was right Sharpay had more stage presence than the other girl, though she did well enough in a backup role. She clapped enthusiastically as the girls were lowered into the stage floor.

-o0o-

Tiara's mother, Tiffany, smiled when her daughter came on stage and waited for her little darling to blow the audience away and show the rest of the cast up as rank amateurs. She still regretted not being able to stay in London or at least send her daughter to a performing art school but with her husband insisting they move as a family when he'd accepted the promotion to head up the new US expansion of the company too late for Tiara to audition at a reputable performing arts school, she'd had no choice but to send her to the public high school.

Tiara had taken it well enough, though she'd spent a lot of time ranting over the hold her new rival Sharpay Evans had on the drama department. Tiffany had encouraged her to honestly befriend the girl but though Tiara had seemed to try the friendship remained superficial.

Tiffany saw the annoyance cross Tiara's face as the other girl arrived on the stage. How dare that little wanna be ruin her daughter's performance. She was a lot louder than Tiara but her voice seemed strained, surely the Juilliard judges would see that and take note of Tiara's potential. Tiffany hadn't been able to believe it when she'd heard that Juilliard was going to come to this insignificant high school concert, and was apparently considering offering a scholarship to one of the seniors. After hearing her daughter maybe they'd decide to wait and offer her the scholarship next year.

Tiffany was proud of the way Tiara seemed to hold on to her temper and continue to give a professional performance, she was sure that nobody who didn't know her daughter would realise how furious she was. The Sharpay girl should be glad she was going to graduate tomorrow and get out of her daughter's way.

-o0o-

Darby lost interest as Troy came out and sang the song Sharpay had sung earlier. She had to admit the boy had a definite appeal and he and the girl that joined him had a lot of chemistry between them. She was a little angry that Sharpay was paired up with that clown boy making a mockery of the song instead of with Troy the way she should have been.

Lucille gasped when Gabriella appeared on stage.

"Did you know she was coming back with him?" Jack asked.

"No he never said a word" Lucille said watching the two of them expressing their feelings in song. It was clear to her that Troy meant every word he was singing, being with Gabriella was more important to him and his happiness than any of them had planned for. She only hoped that Gabriella meant it too.

Maria worriedly watched her daughter sing with Troy. The level of emotion that both of them were expressing concerned her. They were soon going to be at college and even though they weren't going to be 1,000 miles apart the chances of their relationship surviving them being on two separate colleges were slim. and it didn't seem like either of them were willing to accept that. She was fairly sure that Troy didn't have the marks to get into Stanford and she didn't think that he'd applied their either so to be together it would be Gabriella who had to compromise her education. She had hoped that the three weeks early orientation would have made Gabriella more enthusiastic about attending Stanford next year, instead though she'd enjoyed the professors and the challenge of the classes and even begun to make new friends she'd been miserable missing Troy and East High and Maria could guarantee that she wouldn't choose to come back and go to U of A if Troy asked her to.

-o0o-

" **Ladies and gentlemen! Our seniors!"** Estelle Darbus introduced the group

" **Kelsi Nielsen, the Juilliard School Scholarship Recipient. Music"** Estelle announced proudly.

Caroline Neilsen gasped in delighted surprise. Kelsi had not only got into the school of her dreams, she'd got a scholarship. They could afford to send her without sacrificing their retirement fund. She smiled to see Kelsi's friend's genuine joy at her success.

" **Jason Cross. You did it! You graduated!"** Estelle said dramatically.

" **Whoo hoo hoo!"** Jason cheered jumping around crazily. Jason's father laughed, while his mother Annie sighed in relief. She had worked so hard trying to help him pass his classes then laughed as he jumped on Zeke.

" **Taylor McKessie, Yale University, with honours, Political Science"** Darbus announced. Vivienne smiled proudly as he daughter smirked at the audience.

" **And I am pleased to announce that due to the excellence displayed here this evening, the Juilliard School has made an extraordinary decision. Another senior is being offered a Juilliard scholarship. Congratulations, Mr. Ryan Evans, Choreography"** Ryan smiled amazed. Darby smiled slightly confused and clapped proud of her son, but Brock was watching his daughter. She didn't look pleased and Brock winced at the thought of the tantrum she would throw tonight.

" **And congratulations, Miss Sharpay Evans. University of Albuquerque, Performing Arts. Miss Evans has agreed to return to East High next fall to assist me in running the Drama Department"** Ms Darbus added. 'There'd be no assisting about it. The teacher would be assisting Sharpay' Brock thought snidely. Darby beamed hoping that Sharpay would be pacified by this.

Tiffany frowned, it looked like she would be trying to find her daughter a new high school next year after all. She couldn't see Tiara accepting Sharpay being in a position of authority over her.

" **And now a senior who I believe has a decision to make. Mr. Troy Bolton. Troy"** Lucille waited holding her breath as Ms Darbus called him forward.

" **I've chosen basketball"** Troy began.

Jack was on his feet cheering in an instant. Lucille clapped politely a little surprised. She knew Troy said he loved basketball but he seemed so much more alive on stage. She just hoped he wouldn't regret this decision in the future.

" **But I've also chosen theatre. The University of California, Berkeley, offers me both. That's where I'm going to be attending next fall"** Troy continued.

Lucille smiled and applauded enthusiastically. She elbowed Jack. "Support your son" she hissed. "He's not giving up basketball."

" **But most of all, I choose the person who inspires my heart. Which is why I picked a school that's exactly 32.7... ...miles from you"** he finished.

Lucille rolled her eyes as the audience all went 'aww' when Troy told them he was choosing to be near Gabriella because she inspired his heart. Troy put it very romantically but 'none of them would be happy if it was their son or daughter choosing to follow a boy or girl halfway across the country' she thought cynically. She was glad to hear though, that Troy had compromised between following Gabriella to Stanford and choosing a college nearby that offered him both basketball and theatre. She just hoped they were also offering him a scholarship. Berkeley was three times the price of U of A.

" **Miss Gabriella Montez, Stanford University, Pre-Law"** Troy announced proudly.

Maria couldn't help but smile slightly at the young man she'd grown quite fond of over the last sixteen months. Deep down though she really wasn't sure that this gesture of following Gabriella to California would be in either of their best interests. She knew that only 2% of high school relationships lasted and she suspected that 32.7 miles was going to be a much greater distance than Troy or Gabriella expected it would be. She hoped that Gabriella wouldn't spend so much time travelling back and forth to visit Troy that she neglected to make her own friends.

" **Next, Mr. Chad Danforth. University of Albuquerque, Basketball Scholarship!"** Estelle announced.

Charlie and Charlene leapt to their feet cheering before they noticed the empty place where he'd been standing. They'd been paying so much attention to their 'almost a son' that they hadn't considered how much Troy choosing not to go to U of A with Chad would hurt their real son.

Charlene Danforth frowned as she saw her son was missing from his position. She wanted to go after him but she'd been seated in the middle of the row and it would draw too much attention to push past everyone to get out.

She waited anxiously as Troy ran off to find him and smiled tremulously as it was announced that he had won a place on the Redhawks. This should have been a moment of pride and celebration, instead her son was hurting because his brother-in-everything-but-blood announced that they wouldn't be together next year after all. She would miss the sandy haired boy who used to spend all his spare time with her son, but nowhere near as much as Chad would. She worried about him going off to college without Troy by his side to talk him out of his more madcap schemes.

-o0o-

" **East High is a place where teachers encouraged us to break the status quo. And define ourselves as we choose. Where a jock can cook up a mean crème brûlée. And the brainiac can break down on the dance floor.**

 **It's a place where one person...if it's the right person...**

 **...changes us all.**

 **East High is having friends that we'll keep for the rest of our lives. And I guess that means we really are all in this together. Because once a Wildcat...**

 **...always a Wildcat"** Troy finished his speech.

Lucille cheered enthusiastically when Troy looked at her at the end of his speech. She was proud that he'd been voted by the senior class the person they'd wanted to speak for them. She wiped away a tear from the corner of his eye. She couldn't believe that her baby had finished High School. Even harder to accept was the fact he'd be leaving in a couple of months and while he would be home for holidays it would never be the same. He looked so happy today, surrounded by his friends pledging that they'd always remain in touch.

She saw Maria sitting there alone and walked over to talk to her. Maria had become a good friend as they faced the challenges of accepting their children were growing up. Now she would be living closer to Troy than Jack and Lucille could be and it was important that Troy remain in her positive graces so he'd have some support close-by if he needed it.

A/N: thank you to Guest, pumpkinking5, Simone (Guest), everyturn (Guest), Guest, inlovewithHP, Alexandrea Elizabeth Cullen and vballr217 for your support.

Guest – you could mean "The Trials of Life" by mattnme04.


End file.
